J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.} 

.&UP.MM I 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, t 



?f. 



THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 



THE IMPENITENT. 



BY THE 

REV. J. M. OLMSTEAD, 



NEW YORK: 

ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL STREET, 

AND PITTSBURG, 56 MARKET STREET. 



^ 



\ 



b 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by 

ROBERT CARTER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, 
for the Southern District of New York. 



if 



The Library 
of CoNrr,K ESS 

Washington 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



In common with other christians, both in the 
ministry and out of it, the author has not beheld 
with indifference the vast mass of immortal mind 
which is moving onward to destruction. And for 
several years has his voice been employed in the 
endeavour, with the aid of our Almighty and pity- 
ing Lord, to arrest a small portion of this moving 
mass in its progress toward so mournful an end. 
But his voice cannot reach so far as his desire to 
do good extends. Hence the following work. He 
is not ignorant of the fact, that several other works 
of superior merit, designed for the same class, exist. 
Yet has he been induced to send this forth, under 
the impression that it may fail into the hands of 
some who may have never read those other works ; 
or who, should they have had access to one or more 
of them, may still, perchance, have their eye fall on 
something here which may be to them not alto- 
gether unprofitable. To the blessing of the God 
of Grace the author would commend both it and 
the reader. 

July 2, 1846. 






From the Rev. Dr. Miller, of the Theological Sem- 
inary, Princeton. N. J. 

I have had an opportunity of hearing read the 
introductory, and several other leading portions of 
a work, in manucsript, entitled, " Thoughts and 
N Counsels for the Impenitent," by the Rev. James 
M. Olmstead, Pastor of the Church at Flemington, 
N. J. ; and, so far as this cursory examination ena- 
bles me to judge, I consider it as sound, evangeli- 
cal, able in argument, and well adapted to be ex- 
tensively useful. T sincerely wish the Reverend 
Author may receive encouragement to commit the 
work to the press, and thus to extend the circula- 
tion of it among the multitudes to whose case it 
applies. 

SAML. MILLER. 

Princeton, N. J., 
1 April, 1846. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 
Chapter I. The Bad Bargain 7 



II. Indifference to Religion. 

III. No Neutrality. . 

IV. The Deciding Season. 

V. The Heart's Wickedness. . 
VI. The Sinner's Self-ignorance. 
VII. The Abominable Thing. . 
VIII. The Wicked without Peace. 
IX. The Lord's Inquiry. . 
X. Correct Reasoning. . 
XI. Why Die 7 ? .... 
XII. Procrastination. 

XIII. Beware! .... 

XIV. Forgiveness. . 



23 

39 

56 

73 

92 

114 

135 

153 

174 

193 

213 

234 

258 



THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 



THE IMPENITENT. 



CHAPTER 1. 

THE BAD BARGAIN. 

Reader, if you are an impenitent, unconverted 
sinner, I am glad you have taken up this book. I 
have long felt a desire to say something to you, but 
hitherto " lacked opportunity." Will you not re- 
tire into some apartment, or put yourself in some 
spot, where you may be alone, not subject to dis- 
traction or intrusion, whilst I attempt to throw be- 
fore you some thoughts, and offer you some friend- 
ly counsel. 

I suppose that you were not aware of it — but, 
appointed to watch for souls as one that must give 
account, I have been watching with some concern 
your movements — have been observant for a con- 
siderable season of what you were occupied in do- 
ing. I have seen, you busy — have observed you 
to be employed in making a bargain, and one 



THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

which, if it should be consummated, I have no 
doubt you will regard as unfortunate ; will af- 
terwards deeply regret ; feel greatly sorry for. I 
have seen you occupied in the business of barter — 
of bartering your soul for a 'portion of this world. 

I have been greatly amazed that you could de- 
liberately set about the work of doing such a thing. 

1 have thought, Surely that person's mind must be 
labouring under some hallucination, must have 
somehow lost its balance, or he would never think 
of making such a bargain. What ! trade away 
his soul for such an object ! Surely, I have said 
to myself, he must put a very high valuation on 
the world, and a very low one on his soul, or he 
would never imagine it wise to trade away the lat- 
ter for the former. 

There was, reader, between eighteen and nine- 
teen centuries ago, a being in human form on this 
earth, who was remarkable for his talents and 
knowledge. He had a very comprehensive and 
very penetrating mind. He knew, perfectly, what 
this world was, from the centre to the surface, and 
from the equator to the poles : not only knew every 
thing that was in it ; but exactly how much every 
thing it contained was worth. And as he dropped 
something on the point to which allusion has been 
made, it would be well for those who know less 
than he did, to consider what he said. Reader, it 
was this : " What shall it profit a man, if he shall 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 9 

gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or 
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" 
(Mark viii 36, 37) 

Here are the two things specified of which we 
spoke — the world, and the soul — one, the object 
we said you are bartering away, and the other 
the object you are wishing to get for it. 

First — The object you are bartering away — the 
soul. 

Your soul, what is it ? and what is it worth ? 
It is a thing intangible, invisible, but do not infer 
that it is therefore of little or no worth — that it is 
a puff of empty air. The most valuable objects 
in the universe are such as we receive no informa- 
tion of by any of the five senses. If your soul 
consisted of matter, it would be by no means worth 
what it now is. 

God made, first, the material part of man, a part 
indeed curiously fashioned ; but it did not appear to 
be of any great use, did not seem of much if any 
value, by itself. It was not merely a sluggish but 
a motionless mass, incapable, in its separate state, 
of being converted to any great or good object, or 
of enjoying any thing. The soul was put into it 
by its Almighty and Immortal Author. The 
creature then became a moving, thinking, planning 
being, and far from useless in the divine kingdom. 
God prized it. He had made this terrestrial ball, 
and, successively, every object that he put upon 



10 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

it. He then proceeded to make the human crea- 
ture ; but he first did what was strikingly indica- 
tive that he was about to form an object of dignity 
and importance paramount to any previously cre- 
ated — not excepting the earthly ball itself. He 
paused in his creative work, and using the lan- 
guage of deliberation, and even consultation, he 
said, " Let us make man." Ah ! man, man, he 
set a value upon, we are there taught, which tran- 
scended that which he put on the earth and all its 
furniture. Indeed, he built this terrestrial fabric, 
and furnished it, as a habitation for man. How 
important a creature, in the estimation of the Deity, 
does all this show man to be. But what is it that 
gives value principally to man ? Evidently the 
spiritual, not the clayey part. 

Again. The soul — how long is it to have an 
existence ? That sun shall one day lose its bril- 
liancy ; shall set in a night succeeded by no morn- 
ing. The time is to come when those stars shall 
cease to sparkle in night's diadem. Worlds shall 
be hurled into the nonentity from which they 
sprang. But at the period when all this shall oc- 
cur, the soul, your soul, reader, shall exhibit no 
more signs of death, or symptoms of decay, than 
it did the first morning after its creation. As to 
the future, it is an everlasting creature. The 
eternal God will endure no longer than will the 
spirit which dwells in that frail tabernacle. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 11 

Now, you know we estimate certain articles ac- 
cording to their durability. All other things being 
equal, we will choose an article that is more, in 
preference to one that is less durable. Here is an 
article which will last always — will never wear out. 
Eternity is written upon the walls of its every 
chamber. On all its faculties is to be found the 
stamp of immortality. 

And of what capacities, what susceptibilities, is 
that soul possessed. Even in the infancy of its 
being, what surprising things can it devise and ac- 
complish. Look at its achievements in science 
and in art. These achievements which we witness, 
and of which we read, are all from souls in their 
infantile state. What must they become capable of 
knowing and achieving, after they shall have been 
in existence millions of ages ! Why, the period will 
come when a single human soul shall know more 
than all men and angels are acquainted with, or 
ever have known. 

And if, intellectually, the soul is susceptible of 
such enlargement of capacity, and of such acquire- 
ment — then, what shall we say of its coming ca- 
pacity for bliss or woe ? Oh ! what happiness or 
misery it may hereafter hold. Why, reader, if 
you find a home in the third heaven, your soul 
will enjoy, in the eternity before it, a greater 
amount of felicity than has ever yet been enjoyed 
by all creatures, human and angelic, thus far ; and 



12 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

than the}' will enjoy up to the funeral of time. 
On the other hand, if your soul shall fall into the 
burning lake, it will, in its eternity, endure more 
pain than all that the fallen angels, and human 
spirits accursed, have suffered, or will suffer, until 
the archangel's trump shall sound, and the sleep- 
ing dead awake. 

The allwise God does not greatly care for a 
thing of small moment. Objects are constantly 
eaten, destroyed by the teeth of time — so little re- 
gard has he for them, that he does not interfere to 
prevent it. Even a world he can burn up, and 
will do it, of so insignificant account is it with him. 
But man's deathless spirit he has not been indiffer- 
ent about. Long before the human spirit had a 
being, the Omniscient mind saw and greatly cared 
for it. The covenant of a past eternity is not si- 
lent as to this point. After man had fallen from God 
into himself, and was in imminent danger, momen- 
tarily, of falling lower, the Being Divine manifest- 
ed an astonishing regard and lively concern for 
him. Not for his body. That he was willing to 
let die, and mingle its particles with its brother 
clay. But for the immaterial part. I cannot read 
what the Lord, immediately after the first apostacy, 
said about the seed of the woman, and the various 
subsequent revelations of the Old Testament ; its 
visions and voices ; its typical institutions ; and 
the predictions and instructions of its prophets and 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 13 

teachers, without being- struck all the while, with 
the thought of the immense regard had by the 
Deity for the spirit of man. And still more pow- 
erfully is such an impression made on my mind, 
when I turn my eye to the revelations of the New 
Testament, and its institutions ; its commissioned 
apostleship and appointed ministry, and the na- 
ture of the duties and character of the labours and 
services of these ; and, I may add, the ministry of 
a higher order of intelligences than human ; yes, 
and the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God. 

Especially can I not read, in the gospels, of 
Bethlehem's stable, the garden of agony, and the 
bloody mount, without being constrained to ex- 
claim, Oh. what a regard has God had for the 
human soul ! The cross, and the sacrificial vic- 
tim, the infinite suffering endured by the one on 
the other, especially cannot I look or think upon, 
without saying, Here see the worth of man's soul ! 
Here behold God's estimate of its value ! Think 
of the u price, all price beyond," paid for it. u If 
a God bleeds, he bleeds not for a worm." We 
said "infinite sufferiyig" and we meant it. For 
though it was the finite nature of Jesus that under- 
went the torture, yet his infinite nature sustained 
the finite, and enabled it to endure and exhaust 
the curse. And I know not, reader, how to set a 
a limit to that curse. " Every groan of Calvary,' } 
says one, " pronounced the worth of the soul to be 



14 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

greater than ten thousand material worlds. The Son 
of God would not have given his life to redeem the 
whole material universe from ruin. He would not 
have shed a drop of his blood to save this world 
with all its lumber from the flames. He will of 
choice give it to the flames, when its use to the 
soul of man shall be ended. And yet he shed all 
his blood to save the soul." 

You see, dear, unconverted reader, from all this, 
what sort of an article it is that you are willing to 
barter away— an object of immense, inconceivable, 
may I not say, infinite value. 

And what is it you are willing to barter it for ? 
You know what it is — the world : your soul for 
the world. 

You inordinately love, immoderately prize the 
world ; and you are not singular in this. The 
same thing is done by large numbers of creatures 
wearing the same nature as your own. Millions, 
like yourself, love the world much more than they 
do Him who, by his almighty fiat, out of nothing 
produced it. How many idolaters are there, who 
are without the suspicion that they are such. 

You desire to gain the world. So do many be- 
side you. You have numerous rivals. We will 
suppose you to be the successful competitor. You 
have an exalted opinion of its value, and let me 
not here speak depreciatingly or disparagingly of 
it. It is a promising, flattering world, and you, no 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 15 

doubt, like many others, imagine that its possession 
would make you vastly happy. As the Saviour 
makes the supposition about gaining " the whole 
world]' we will suppose you to be the individual 
who gains it — that you are so fortunate as to be- 
come this world's proprietor — that all its gold and 
silver ; the cattle upon its thousand hills ; its lands 
and tenements, and every thing else it contains in 
the form of property, or that can be converted into 
it, is yours. You have become a very opulent 
man. Thousands, possessing but a very inconsid- 
erable part of it, might reasonably be accounted 
wealthy. This world, divided indeed between 
several millions, would make each of them rich. 
How incomparably richer you, who, stretching 
your arms like seas and grasping in all the shore, 
ay, and grasping the seas beside, can say of it col- 
lectively, u This is mine." 

We will also suppose you to become the world's 
monarch. It seems reasonable that you, who own 
the world, should be ruler over it. All others of 
mankind are but your subjects and servants. 
They speak and sing your praises ; bow to your 
will ; run at your bidding. The gems that spar- 
kle in the diadems of earth's princes, are brought 
and put into your crown. The concentrated power 
and pomp and glory of the globe is wreathed 
about your brow, and glitters on your person. The 



16 THOUGHTS 4ND COUNSELS 

world is in homage at your feet. There is nought 
of sublunary honour that is not yours. 

Yours likewise become the pleasures of the 
world. Its beauties, its melodies, its sweets, are all 
for your gratification. Your every sense is re- 
galed. Your heart dances with joy. In order to 
make your worldly condition as good as possible, 
we will suppose that you are made completely 
happy by your vast possession. And that your 
life may be long to enjoy your world, we will sup- 
pose your age to be protracted to double that of 
Methuselah — in round numbers, to twice a thou- 
sand years. So long a season is allowed you to 
enjoy what your great globe can yield. And ver- 
ily to look forward, does it not appear like a young 
eternity ? How rich, honored, and happy a man 
for twent}?- centuries. 

At the end of this season, your breath and your 
world are to depart from you, and your soul that 
you sold for it, is to sink into the flames kindled by 
God's wrath. The earth whirls and whirls around 
in its orbit, and years take their station with those 
beyond the flood. One century after another ex- 
pires. At length your twenty centuries have all, 
up to the last hour of the last one, passed away. 
Hark! — There is your last gasp! With it you 
resign your possession, and plunge into hell. 
Alas, what a plunge ! and what a shriek follows. 
Let the scene dwell on your imagination for a 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 17 

time. ***** Your world, which you 
loved, prized, so much, where is it? and where 
now are you % It is a new situation for you to be 
in. What a contrast between it and your former 
one, w T hen you were owning and enjoying your 
world. Poor soul ! your harvest-season of mercy 
is gone. 

Your world yielded you perfect happiness du- 
ring twenty centuries ; and should you be perfect- 
ly miserable for the twenty centuries immediately 
succeeding, in your new and fiery abode, you will 
have received an equivalent for this last, in your 
former enjoyment. But remember, friend, that af- 
ter your soul shall have been tossing on the fiery 
billows for twenty centuries, your sufferings will 
be no nearer an end than they were the day you 
entered upon them. There is an eternity, an eter- 
nity beyond, during which you must suffer want, 
and tiie* wrath of God. You sold your soul for 
the world, " the whole world,' 7 and you see the re- 
sult. How bad a bargain I 

But, reader, it was a supposition that you were 
to gain the whole world. It was a supposition that 
you would hold it twenty centuries. And it was 
a supposition that its possession, while retained, 
would make you perfectly happy. The sober re- 
ality is, that you are to live but a very small part 
of twenty centuries — perhaps not twenty years ; 
and peradventure not one. Instead of gaining the 



18 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

whole world, you will, with unremitted and ut- 
most effort, gain but a very, very small portion of 
it. And you will be far from being made com- 
pletely happy, whilst you hold it, by what you 
will get. The question then comes to this : — Will 
you, for the trifling amount of property, or power, 
or pleasure that you can here procure ; and for the 
exceedingly brief and uncertain period that you can 
hold it ; and for the small amount of comfort or 
gratification that you can derive from it — barter 
away that soul of such vast, inconceivable value ? 
Say, will you ? 

If it would be madness inexpressible in you to 
sell that spirit immortal, which is tarrying for a 
few days in that material frame-work, for the whole 
world ; and that world to be had in possession du- 
ring the long period that we supposed ; and when 
also it was to yield you perfect happiness all that 
period — then, is not language infinitely too feeble 
to express the degree of folly and madness with 
which your conduct is marked, in bartering it 
away for so much more trifling a consideration as 
you are actually disposing of it for? Oh ! my 
friend, how it sickens me to think of it. The man 
who should trade away a continent for a trinket 
would make a good bargain compared with him 
who gives his soul for the little that he can get of 
the property, honour, or pleasure of this world. 
" Ah ! it is enough to break the heart, to see for 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 19 

how mean and miserable a consideration, men bar- 
ter away their eternal all ; for what a worthless 
vanity they sacrifice their heaven — at what a 
paltry price they sell the hope of the soul. Souls 
are cheap, for the market is glutted. Let intem- 
perance, debauchery, vanity, worldliness, and am- 
bition, say what they give for souls, and men will 
be amazed at how cheap a rate all is parted with." 
Alas ! what multitudes act either as if they had 
no souls, or as if they did not imagine them to be 
worth the most trifling consideration. How many, 
evidently, care less for their souls than they do for 
a dollar ; — trust their souls where they would not 
trust a dollar ; — manifest more anxiety, and put 
forth more effort to obtain that inconsiderable sum, 
than they do to secure the soul's eternal salvation ! 
Nor is conduct resembling this, confined to the in- 
experienced, giddy, and thoughtless youth ; but 
extends to the more advanced in years and experi- 
ence j to the cool and the calculating of middle life ; 
to numbers of this world's wise ones; to men of 
mighty and treasured intellects ; to grave states- 
men ; to " the mighty man, and the man of war, 
the judge, the prudent, and the ancient, the cap- 
tain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the 
counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the elo- 
quent orator." Amongst people of almost every 
rank and calling are to be found those, and not in 
inconsiderable numbers, who are busied in barter- 



20 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

ing away their souls for an empty nothing. Large 
numbers of them, I suppose, are not aware of it — 
but their not being aware of it does not alter the 
fact. A great proportion of the unconverted, near- 
ly all indeed, will not so much as stop and think 
what they are doing. Onward, as with bandaged 
eyes, they rush to destruction. They have their 
objects of which they are in pursuit, and for the 
attainment of which they will sacrifice all that is 
valuable in immortality ; the unspeakable and 
fadeless glories and felicities of heaven ; and bring 
upon themselves the awful and eternal horrors and 
miseries of perdition. 

That the soul may or can be lost, is a truth as- 
sumed by Jesus Christ. It was so well known to 
him, and what he thought men had so much rea- 
son to believe to be a fact, that he does not stop 
and labour to prove it. The bare intimation, from 
the lips of our blessed Lord, of such a thing, 
should be to us as the most laboured demonstration. 
He would raise no false alarm ; he would excite 
no unnecessary painful apprehension. He would 
not disturb the repose of a slumbering world, if 
there was no call for it. Ah ! my reader, it is a 
fact that the soul may be lost. In reference to myr- 
iads of our fellow-creatures it is a still more solemn 
and awful fact that it is in infinite danger of being 
lost. Yet Christ seems to intimate that if men 
would not so foolishly and madly engage in bar- 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 21 

tering it away, it need not be lost. It is by im- 
plication asserted, that if men would bestow due 
care on 3 or take due pains in relation to, their 
souls, instead of being lost, they should be saved. 
And what is here implied respecting this point, is 
more than implied, is clearly taught, in various 
parts of Christ's blessed gospel. 

After all, however, that has been said, my im- 
penitent reader may perhaps hesitate about admit- 
ting the correctness of the charge, that he is bar- 
tering away his own soul for a portion of this 
world. You may not think that you are doing 
this. But I beseech you, unconverted friend, just 
to consider what it is that you most love ; are most 
solicitous to obtain ; are chiefly or exclusively 
seeking after and labouring for. Do you not, on 
examination, find that it is something earthly ? Is 
it not, in your case, obviously so? Are you as 
diligently, earnestly, perseveringly, using means 
for securing your soul's salvation, as you are for 
the acquisition of earth's fleeting vanities? Do 
you not see, are you not constrained in honour 
and truth to confess, that you are not ? Are you 
not, for the sake of the worldly, neglecting the 
heavenly? Then are you chargeable with the 
folly, infatuation, madness, of which we have been 
speaking. 

It is related in profane history, that a certain 
sovereign, Lysimachus, king of Thrace, when 



22 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

suffering under extreme thirst, offered his kingdom 
to the GetsB for the means of quenching it. After 
his thirst was quenched, how differently did he 
view the matter than before. His exclamation 
was, " Ah, wretched me, who, for such a moment- 
ary gratification, have lost so great a kingdom !" 

In sacred history it is related of one, that in a 
time of hunger, he sold his birth-right, which in- 
cluded not only temporal, but choice spiritual priv- 
ileges and blessings, for a mess of pottage. After- 
ward, when he better saw the character of the 
transaction, he wept bitterly. But the die was 
cast. Then, though he most earnestly desired to 
inherit the blessing, he was rejected; he found no 
place of repentance in his father, although he 
sought it carefully with tears. 

So the period is coming, when you, my impen- 
itent reader, will have your eyes open to see the 
kind of bargain you are now making. But it may 
be when it is too late to rectify the mistake — after 
the bargain is concluded, and your soul tossing on 
the fiery billows. Then, what more bitter and 
protracted weeping yours than that of Lysimachus 
or of Esau. Oh, how, through eternal ages, will 
you wail over your fatuity ; howl over your mad- 
ness ! Your invaluable soul for ever undone 

sacrificed for a trifle ! 



FOR THE IMPENITENT, 23 



CHAPTER II. 

INDIFFERENCE TO RELIGION. 

O my friend, let me sit down by your side — be 
not afraid of me — and suffer a few words to be 
dropped into your ear. The subject may be unwel- 
come, and you may think me meddlesome. But 
how can I refrain from expressing my concern for 
you, and the pain I feel because of the indifference 
which you manifest to religion ? If you took no 
great interest in the trifles of a day — if earth pre- 
sented no such charms to you as to cause enchant- 
ment; if the objects which wither at the touch 
had not power to kindle in your breast the faintest 
desire for their attainment — I could hardly think 
it strange, but would rather suppose that you had 
come to your right mind. I would conclude that 
you had been weighing them in the balance of the 
sanctuary, and ascertained how light and compar- 
atively worthless they are. 

But when I observe that you can be in earnest 
— that you have a heart that can be on fire, and 
hands which can be busy : and that it is solely 
these fading objects that surround you which kin- 



24 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

die the fire in your bosom, and put your hands in 
motion — when I see that you have zeal, and are 
inclined to bestir yourself, but that your zeal and 
activity relate exclusively to what moth and rust can 
corrupt, and death put forever far from you, I can- 
not feel as if T were discharging my duty, or act- 
ing a friendly part toward you, by keeping silence. 
So far from wishing you harm, dear reader, I wish 
you the greatest good you are capable of receiv- 
ing. I would not destroy your happiness, but 
promote it. I would have you opulent, honoured, 
and blissful. I would have you singing with ser- 
aphs long after this world shall have been burned 
up — long after the wicked shall have gone from 
the judgment to their fiery home. 

Oh, is this rational creature of God willing thus 
to spend money for that which is .not bread, and 
labour for that which satisfieth not ? With this 
reader, whose breath is in his nostrils, and who is 
on the edge of a precipice, is religion such a trifle as 
to come in for no share of his solicitudes 1 What 
must he think of it? Do you, my unregenerate 
friend, entertain any suspicion concerning the 
truth of the christian religion ? Are you inclined 
to suspect that the christian scriptures do not con- 
tain a revelation from God, and therefore direct 
not your thoughts or anxieties to the religion they 
inculcate or teach ? Is the Bible a cheat ? That 
Book was written either by bad men or good. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 25 

Bad men could not have written it, if they would ; 
and would not if they could. And good men 
would not have attempted to palm upon the world, 
as a revelation from God, what was no such thing. 
Would the apostles have exposed themselves to 
what they did, in propagating a religion which, if 
false, they must have known to be so? Miracles 
were wrought. Would God have put forth his al- 
mighty power in confirmation of a falsity, or an 
imposture? Predictions were uttered and record- 
ed, a number of which have already been exactly 
fulfilled. Could such predictions have come from 
any other source than from a mind which knew 
what should be, as well as what was ? Inspect the 
character of the doctrines and principles of the 
scriptures. Look at the effects produced by those 
scriptures, or the religion they teach, where those 
writings have been disseminated, and the christian 
religion embraced. Take the narrative portions of 
that volume. Could those have been palmed upon 
a people living in the same age in which such and 
such occurrences are there said to have taken 
place, if those narratives were false ? Or could 
the next succeeding age have been thus imposed 
on ? How utterly incredible ! 

Lord Lyttleton and Gilbert West, whilst infidels, 

resolved each to write a treatise oppugning the 

scriptures, and exposing what they considered their 

absurdities and falsity. The former selected as a 

3 



26 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

subject, The Conversion of St. Paul ; the latter, 
The Resurrection of Christ. This, leading them 
to a perusal and examination of parts of the sacred 
writings, resulted not only in the conversion to the 
christian faith of them both, but to the production 
of two able treatises in favour of the christian 
scriptures as a Divine Revelation : one of these 
treatises entitled, The Conversion of St. Paul ' r the 
other, The Resurrection of Christ. 

There are such evidences in support of the claims 
of the Bible, and it is a book so much needed in 
such a world as this, that it will never be generally- 
repudiated, or become obsolete. Not long after 
the Revolutionary war, when, through the influ- 
ence of that war on morals and religion, as well 
as through the influence of Paine's " Age of Rea- 
son," infidelity was rife in the land, " A distin- 
guished member of Congress," — that body sitting 
then in Philadelphia — " A distinguished member 
of Congress, who had been a very profane man, 
but in the mercy of God was arrested in his 
course, became anxious for the salvation of his soul, 
and went into a bookstore in that city to purchase 
a Bible. The owner of the store was behind his 
counter, and told the member of Congress that he 
did not keep Bibles for sale. " What ! not keep 
Bibles !" replied the surprised inquirer. " No sir," 
answered the bookseller with a smirk ; " and we 
think sir," he continued, " that it will not be long 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 27 

before Bibles will neither be sold nor read in this 
city." The indignant Congressman, looking him 
sternly in the face, replied, " The Bible, sir, will 
be read in Philadelphia, a thousand years after 
you will have been broiling in hell." 

But, dear reader, how indifferent soever you are 
to the true religion, I presume you are not ready 
to admit that your indifference is the result of scep- 
ticism. I doubt not but you are prepared to de- 
clare that in your opinion the religion which is the 
burden of gospel revelation is no cunningly devised 
fable. You acknowledge it to be a reality, a ver- 
ity, the thing which it professes or claims to be ; 
that it is founded on the firm, solid rock of truth. 
I am desirous, however, that you should not stop 
with confessing the religion which the sacred 
scriptures furnish us with a knowledge of, to be 
based on truth, and, if you please, in addition, that 
all its walls up to the topmost stone are of nought 
else but everlasting truth. I wish you, moreover, 
to have so clear and impressive a discovery of its 
nature, its features, relations, bearings, and of its 
importance to you, as that you shall feel and be 
constrained to confess that indifference on your 
part in regard to it is highly improper, unrighteous, 
and unwise. 

Oh, reader, this celestial visitant has come down 
from the upper skies, robed in beauty, and display- 
ing worth and excellence such as to show whence 



28 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

she is descended — as to afford evidence of her 
high and heavenly birth not only, but of her 
worthiness to command the admiration and love 
of yourself, and of every beholder. Do you not 
see that she can be met properly with no other 
feeling than that of warm affection ? To be in- 
different to her charms ; to hear the music of her 
sweeter than seraphic voice without being enrap- 
tured ; to continue standing at a distance when she 
calls, instead of rushing forward toward her ; to 
see her moving onward with superangelic grace, 
and beckoning to us to follow, and yet we stand 
still ; to hear her claiming our homage, and yet 
we not fall prostrate at her feet ; to have her com- 
mands reach our ears, and yet those commands 
not be met with cheerful obedience on our part — 
this, this is a sort of feeling and conduct far indeed 
from what might be rightly or reasonably looked 
for. 

To whatever branch of the true religion you 
direct your eye, you cannot but discover that indif- 
ference in relation to it is highly absurd or im- 
proper. The truth that there is a God lies at the 
foundation of religion. There can be no religion 
without a God — without an object of worship. 
Now the God whom the works of creation in a 
measure, and more clearly and fully, the sacred 
scriptures, reveal or bring to our notice, is a Being 
of superlative, infinite excellence. Even the voice 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 29 

of Nature proclaims him to be a Being of tran- 
scendent and astonishing greatness, wisdom, and 
power, and one worthy of supreme regard and rev- 
erence. But in louder, clearer, fuller tones does 
Revelation speak of this wonderful Being. That 
sacred volume whose words are all verity and no 
lie, tells us that he is eternal both as to the past and 
the future, or, as Israel's sweet singer expresses 
it, il from everlasting to everlasting ;" that he pos- 
sesses the attributes of omnipresence, omniscience, 
almightiness ; that he is holy, and good, and just, 
and faithful, and merciful, and infinite in every one 
of these respects ; in short, that he is a Being so 
great and glorious, that it is impossible that he 
should be any more so than he is. He is, in ad- 
dition, in the sacred scriptures, represented as sus- 
taining certain interesting and important relations to 
us, and all others of our race. We discover in 
that Book of books that he is our Creator, our 
Preserver, Benefactor, Father ; that he has exceed- 
ingly cared for our welfare, and done for us what 
has excited the astonishment of all the " principal- 
ities and powers in heavenly places. " 

Now, what sort of feelings should be cherished 
toward such a Being, and standing in such rela- 
tions ? May he with propriety be loved only a lit- 
tle, or none at all 1 Can he properly be regarded 
by us with indifference ?- May we innocently or 
reasonably have a bosom barren of affection to- 



30 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

ward him ? Of what measure of love from you 
and me does he himself think he is worthy ? How 
much does he think due as a tribute from these 
our hearts ? Oh, does he not say that we should 
love him with all our heart, and soul, and mind, 
and strength? And is this too much? Must we 
not acknowledge this measure of love to be right 
and reasonable ? If so, how must indifference in 
reference to him appear in his view ? Otherwise 
can it appear than most absurd and culpable? 
And should it not so appear to us? Between su- 
preme attachment on the one hand, and indiffer- 
ence on the other, how great the contrast ! And 
if the former is God's due, and what he claims 
from us, how reprehensible and displeasing is the 
latter ! 

And, as regards the service of God : If he is 
such a Being, and sustains such relations to us as 
have been spoken of, may you or I serve him or 
not, as is most convenient, or as we chance to be 
most inclined ? May it innocently be a matter of 
indifference to us whether or not we render him 
any service ? How large is his demand ? M Wheth- 
er, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, 
do all to the glory of God." (1st Cor. x. 31.) 
Now what a difference there is between this mode 
of living or acting, and a being indifferent wheth- 
er we do anything to his glory — a not caring 
whether we serve him at all or not. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 31 

There is Jesus Christ : what sort of a Being is 
he ? Is he clothed with superangelic and divine 
excellencies ? Is he one with the Father as to the 
nature he had before the world was ? Has he the 
same infinite power, wisdom, holiness, goodness? 
Is he, as Mediator, the chief among ten thousand, 
yea, altogether lovely ? And what sort of feelings 
has he cherished, and after what manner has he 
acted toward us? O, my Bible tells me of one 
who has proved " a Friend above all others" to 
the fallen of human kind. It speaks to me of 
amazing condescension on the part of one, who 
though he " thought it not robbery to be equal 
with God, yet made himself of no reputation" for 
our sakes. I read in my Bible of a personage 
who, though he was rich, so rich as to be the pro- 
prietor of all worlds, yet for our sakes became 
poor, so poor as not to have even where to lay his 
head, that we through his poverty might be rich. 
There was, as I have been credibly informed, one 
born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod 
the king, who, though he is said to have come 
from the third heaven, was seen living here in the 
vale of obscurity, and a deeper shade surrounding 
him for some thirty or more years, than has been 
observed to settle about ordinary humanity. For 
the last three or four years of his life, I see him 
the marked victim of fiendlike malice, and hellish 
hate. I see him toiling as one that had much to 



32 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

do, and sorrowing as one that had much to suffer. 
I follow him at the dead of night to a garden at 
the foot of Olivet, and witness his prostrations, his 
cries, and his bloody sweat. And to the Sanhe- 
drin and to the judgment hall I attend him too, 
and observe to what shame and spitting he is there 
subjected. I see him with his scarlet robe and his 
crown of thorns. And what occurs on a certain 
mount where a cross is raised up and a victim on 
it, I also witness. Oh, that my head were waters 
and mine eyes a fountain of tears ! I hear him cry- 
ing, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me ?" and behold him bowing his head and giv- 
ing up the ghost ! — All this, dear reader, I wit- 
ness, and I ask, why ? for whom or what was all 
this humiliation 3 and ignominy, and sorrow, and 
pain undergone ? and I learn from the same sa- 
cred book that it was for sinners of human kind, 
for creatures of like condition and character with 
you and me. I learn that it was for our good, 
even for our salvation, that all this was endured, 
voluntarily submitted to — that it was that we 
might be delivered from eternal anguish, and find 
endless blessedness. 

Now, what temper of mind, what state of heart, 
does it become you and me to have in relation to 
such a Being ? May such excellence, love, and 
compassion, be met with icy-heartednesss or indif- 
ference? Oh, what love and gratitude are due 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 33 

him who is in himself so lovely, and who has 
manifested such friendship, (oh! what a weak 
word ! ) such more than friendship, for such wretch- 
es ! Say, reader, is he not deserving of more love 
than your idols ? Does he not merit higher re- 
gard than any thing and every thing of earth? 
Such a measure of love as will secure from us a 
keeping of his commandments, nothing short of 
this, certainly, should vou or I be at all satisfied 
with. 

11 Love so amazing, so divine, 
Demands our soul, our life> our all." 

Should we not, in return, have for him an es- 
teem or affection so pure and strong as to be an 
operative, reigning, controlling principle ? — as to 
bring every power of the material and spiritual 
man into the service of Christ ? A martyr was 
asked, whether he did not love his wife and chil- 
dren, who stood weeping by him. u Love them ? 
Yes," said he : u If all the world were gold, and at 
my disposal, I would give it all for the satisfaction 
of living with them, though it were in a prison. 
Yet in comparison with Christ I love them not." 
So transcendent a love, reader, should your heart 
have for Christ. Indifference toward this lovely 
Prince of grace, toward such a Brother and Sa- 
viour, how inexpressibly unbecoming and vile ! 
The religion of the gospel, my reader, offers 



34 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

greatly to befriend us and others of mankind — of- 
fers to supply us with all that we really need. 
And surely the offer is a kind and large one : 
For we need much as fallen creatures, incompara- 
bly more almost than we do as creatures ; and 
much must be done for us, or we are wretched, 
and forever undone. You, as a transgressor, have 
fallen under the curse of a broken law. You de- 
serve to die, and are actually exposed to a punish- 
ment indescribably severe and everduring. You. 
in common with the other creatures of the fall, 
are a poor, weak, disobedient, blinded, defiled, de- 
based, as well as dying creature, and, withal, ac- 
countable — accountable to Him, whose creature 
you are. Now, the religion of Christ comes to 
you with its great and appropriate tenders. It of- 
fers to roll away the heavy curse which has set- 
tled on you — to deliver you from that tremendous 
punishment which you deserve from the hand of 
a holy and just God. It offers to unscale your 
eyes, and to disperse the darkness in which you 
are enshrouded. It offers to strip you of your rags, 
and to apparel you in vestments, whole, beautiful, 
and clean. It offers to take you from your hut of 
poverty, and so to alter your circumstances, as 
that you may regard yourself, even while here, as 
truly rich, and as heir to a fortune greater than 
earth knows. It offers to purify, elevate, ennoble 
you ; to make you a near relative of the King of 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 35 

kings and Lord of lords, ay, to make yourself a 
king, the heir apparent now to, and, after a few 
short years, or months, or days, the actual wearer 
of a crown richer, brighter than earthly prince 
ever wore. It offers to lift you out of your wretch- 
edness, to wipe your sorrows dry, and to place you 
where you will know and feel nought but happi- 
ness ineffable, forevermore. All this, and much 
more, the blessed religion of the gospel offers to do 
for you, and for all others who will embrace her, 
who will receive her cordially, accept humbly and 
thankfully of what she has to give, and who will 
take upon them her light and easy yoke, and walk 
in her paths. 

Now, can it be regarded as wise or proper for 
you, or for any others circumstanced as you are, to 
slight such a benefactress ? — to treat with indiffer- 
ence such a religion ? Should not her tenders be 
cordially and thankfully accepted ? and should she 
not be greatly loved and zealously followed, both 
for the sake of what she is in herself, and for her 
unspeakably kind and invaluable offers'? 

Indifference toward such a religion cannot be 
justly regarded but as the extreme of fatuity or 
madness. No one who by the hearing of the ear 
has been afforded any knowledge of her, and es- 
pecially who lives where her light shines, where 
her claims are pressed on the attention, and her 
proffers made, can have a want of warm feeling or 



36 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

ardent love towards her, without acting very cul- 
pably, and highly displeasing him with whom we 
have to do. Do not, as some appear to, imagine that 
because you make no profession of religion, be- 
cause you are not connected in the way of mem- 
bership with the church, you are excusable for the 
indifference which you feel, and, after one and an- 
other manner, show toward this religion. It is 
your duty to love God and his Christ supremely. 
It is your duty to obey and serve the Lord with 
body and soul, and to do this every day and hour 
that you breathe God's air, or live on God's 
bounty. The fact of your not being a professor of 
religion does not release you from this ; it cuts not 
the bond of religious obligation. No ; so long as 
you are God's creature, you are bound to love him 
with all your heart, and to glorify him with all 
your powers. And so long as you have a soul to 
be saved or lost, you cannot treat the religion of 
Jesus with indifference, without both displeasing its 
divine author, and greatly wronging yourself. 
Condemn yourself, oh reader, and smite upon 
your breast, because you have so long treated the 
religion of our Lord after the manner you have. 
And repent as in dust and ashes, this hour, of your 
present indifference and negligence in regard to it. 
Your feelings are far from right, and your state is 
far from safe. 

Do you feel inclined to ask, what reason the 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 37 

writer has to suspect you of being mournfully in- 
different to religion ? Permit me to request you to 
put that question to the ever-present and omnis- 
cient Deity. Does he whose eye is constantly 
upon your heart, and who pondereth all your go- 
ings, see that heart throbbing with a deep and 
abiding anxiety to honour, please, and serve him? 
Does he behold the sacred volume oft spread open 
before you, and its precious contents searched with 
a mind deeply interested — intent on ascertaining 
truth in order to its hearty reception, and duty in 
order to its faithful performance ? Is he witness to 
a frequent, daily observance of that injunction, 
" Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut 
thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret ?" 
Can you call God to witness that you love the 
holy sabbath — desire to be found statedly, on that 
day, where Jehovah is worshipped ; there to adore 
Him, who is, and was, and is to come ; there to 
feast your soul on Christ's ravishing charms ; to 
eat of the bread of life, and draw water out of that 
well of salvation ? Does he observe you looking 
much more intently and constantly at those things 
which are above, than at the gross and decaying 
objects about you? Does he see you ardently 
bent on preparing to abide forever in a " house not 
made with hands?" To such questions as these can 
you conscientiously give an affirmative answer? 
Oh, how much I wish that you could. 



38 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

Dear reader, your heart has never been melted 
into penitence for sin. Your feet have never yet 
borne you to that tree on which Jesus died. Your 
soul has never yet been in the bath of blood di- 
vine. The Holy Spirit of God you have never 
yet welcomed to your bosom. You are in the 
gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. Your in- 
fractions of the Divine law expose you to the severe 
inflictions of inexorable justice. Your peril, how 
imminent. Yet you tremble not. The salvation 
of the gospel you pant not after ; the terrors of 
perdition you appear indifferent about escaping. I 
entreat you, friend, to open your eyes. Look, 
look at your terrible situation. Persist in con- 
templating it, until you shall feel uneasy, and be- 
gin to inquire, What must I do? Where can I 
fly for succour? I love you too much, dear reader, 
to be willing that you should sink into the place 
where sighs cease not. I long to have you prepared 
to spend your eternity with me on the sunny 
heights of glory. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 39 



CHAPTER III. 

NO NEUTRALITY. 

As in the natural world there is light and dark- 
ness, so is there in the moral. There is the king- 
dom of light, and the kingdom of darkness ; the 
Prince of light, and the prince of darkness ; and 
the cause and interests of each. Now in that dec- 
laration of God the Son, " He that is not with me 
is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, 
scattereth abroad," it is implied that that omnis- 
cient Being saw that there were, and would be, hu- 
man creatures,* who would like to regard them- 
selves, and be regarded by others, as occupying a 
position of neutrality in relation to these : as 
neither for God nor against him ; as neither of the 
one kingdom nor the other; as espousing the 
cause and interests of neither party. God — for 
Christ is God ; he, " in the beginning," was not 
only " with God," but •• was God," and he has not 
ceased to be God by being made flesh, or taking 
our nature unto him — The all-knowing and vera- 
cious God has declared, in the words above quoted, 
that there is no such thing as neutrality — that no 



40 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

rational creature can find any neutral ground on 
which to stand. It exists not. 

1. That there is such a thing as being " with," 
that is, on the side of, the Lord, I cannot indulge the 
idea that you, reader, are disposed to deny. There 
is such a thing as being with him in our senti- 
ments; as having, so far as our knowledge ex- 
tends, opinions in harmony with his. There are 
those who go to the Bible for information as to 
truth and duty. That holy book is from God, and 
contains such a portion of his sentiments as he has 
been pleased to reveal. They believe what is 
there stated, to be true ; imbibe his sentiments ; 
and henceforth think with him. So far as their 
knowledge reaches, they harmonize with him in 
sentiment for example, as to his own attributes 
and excellences ; as to the Mediator's character, 
offices, work ; as to sin, the world, the soul, salva- 
tion, time and eternity ; as to the state, interests, 
duties, and destiny of man ; as to the world of 
glory, and the world of woe. 

There are those, too, who are " with the Lord' 5 
as to their affections ; who have a heart which 
beats in unison with his. When the Lord was on 
the earth, he gave strong, indubitable evidence, 
that he greatly loved the Father, and manifested 
intense anxiety and desire that the Father might 
be glorified both by himself and others. He ex- 
hibited a feeling of strong approbation of the di- 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 41 

vine government, a very high esteem of the di- 
vine laws. The holy and abiding objects of the 
spiritual and celestial world were not absent from 
his affections ; he panted after them as the hart 
panteth after the water-brooks. On the other hand, 
he showed an inexpressibly strong dislike to sin. 
Oh, how he did detest disobedience to the precepts, 
want of submission to the authority, of the infinite 
God. How hateful to him was depravity ; what 
pain did he feel when he beheld its workings in 
the hearts of men. His benevolence toward the 
fallen of human kind, his concern for their welfare, 
his desire for their holiness and happiness, were 
all intense beyond the power of utterance ; and his 
hostility to the kingdom and the works of dark- 
ness was no less inexpressible. Now it must be 
acknowledged, for the thing is manifest, that there 
are those whose feelings harmonize with his, on 
these several points. 

The Lord also is making efforts, and not unsuc- 
cessful, to advance the prosperity or promote the 
interests of the kingdom of light and righteous- 
ness in this dark and wicked world. He is labour- 
ing earnestly and assiduously to thwart the designs, 
weaken the strength, and diminish the subjects of 
the kingdom of the Prince of darkness ; to wrest 
captives from the snare of the fowler ; to tear 
down the strongholds which the adversary has 
erected in the different parts of his empire ; to re- 



42 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

move more and more from the earth the evils 
which afflict poor, fallen humanity ; to originate, 
augment, cause to abound, u whatsoever things are 
true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
things are just, whatsoever things are lovely, what- 
soever things are of good report ;" and to prepare 
men to enter upon and enjoy the everlasting glo- 
ries and felicities of the world celestial. And ef- 
forts of this character, there are those both on earth 
and in heaven who agree with the Lord in putting 
forth. Saints and angels harmonize with him in 
these exertions, and with joy and rapture hail 
every advance in so magnificent an enterprize, so 
blessed a cause. 

2. On the other hand, reader, we have evidence 
too abundant and palpable to allow us to deny, that 
there is such a thing as being against the Lord ; 
as being hostile to him, his kingdom, his cause. 
You and I both know that there are those who 
contemptuously set at nought the religion of God ; 
cast away as a figment that Book which teaches 
the doctrines and inculcates the duties of that re- 
ligion. The whole class of deists do so. Amongst 
these, some indeed are more bitter against what 
they call the imposture than are others. But the 
Lord Jesus Christ finds no favour among any of 
them. Voltaire was in the habit of calling him, 
" The Wretch," and nothing else did he apparently 
desire so much as to " crush" him and his cause. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 43 

And as to Paine, I would be far from willing to 
repeat the expressions of low scurrility which he 
used concerning the son of the virgin. Several 
writers, both in England and France, spent a con- 
siderable portion of their life in attempting to re- 
fute the christian scheme: some in more, and 
others in less, offensive and violent terms. 

There are those also, who, although they have 
not settled it in their minds that Jesus is an impos- 
tor, or the Bible a product of priestcraft, are never- 
theless, in a greater or less measure, scoffers at sa- 
cred things. And there are large numbers who 
show in ways which need not be specified, that 
they harmonize not in feelings with the Lord — 
love not what he loves ; hate not what he hates ; 
and who, instead of making exertions to promote 
the cause of righteousness in the earth, are, in one 
form and degree or another, ready to oppose it. 
The kingdom of darkness is obviously a favourite 
with them ; not the kingdom of light. This is 
shown by their fruits. Such are ever raising ob- 
jections to any good cause which is presented to 
the notice ; are ready to ascribe its origin to un- 
worthy motives ; and can never be satisfied with 
any proper mode or means adopted for its advance- 
ment. They evidently wish holiness not to pre- 
vail on the earth ; would much dread having it in- 
troduced into their neighbourhood ; prefer the 



44 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

prevalence of sin in both ; and, after some man- 
ner, give expression to their preference. 

Thus have we set before you, reader, the two 
great conflicting causes and interests which seem to 
divide between them the rational creatures of God, 
human and angelic — and the two different, oppo- 
site classes which espouse them. I say, seem to di- 
vide between them the rational creatures of God — 
for I choose to state the matter at present in this 
form, lest I should appear to assume as true what 
I have not yet advanced arguments to prove. 

I stated at the outset, that the Saviour's language 
which I had quoted, manifestly implied that there 
are those who would like to regard themselves, 
and to be regarded by others, as occupying a 
position of neutrality in relation to these two an- 
tagonistic causes. 

Before I proceed to the proof that no such posi- 
ion of neutrality is to be found — no third class to 
occupy such a position — suffer me to ask you, 
reader, whether you suppose that you occupy such 
a position ? or whether you would be willing to do 
it, if you could ? Why, all inanimate nature 
would cry, "Shame on you!" if you could so 
much as desire it — would lift her voice to reprove 
you. Go, listen to the language of the works of 
God. Those valleys smiling in verdant beauty, 
those fields teeming with fruitfulness, those forests 
untrodden by the foot of man, those mountains 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 45 

which lift their towering heads to the skies — these 
occupy no neutral position. Those seas, those 
rivers, those rills do not. That bending corn, those 
waving meadows, those beauteous flowers do not. 
Those winds and flying clouds, that hail, snow, 
rain, those flashing lightnings, and bellowing 
thunders do not. That glorious luminary in the 
heavens which sends down upon us, and upon the 
world, his beams of warmth and radiance, that sil- 
very moon, and those thousand twinkling lights 
which night reveals, do not. These speak of the 
power, wisdom, goodness, and sing the praises, of 
their glorious Creator. These are not against God, 
but for him. Nor are they mutely in his favour. 
They lift high, raise loud their voice, declaring 
the glory of Jehovah. 

" There's not the smallest orb which we behold, 
But in its motion like an angel sings." 

" These are are thy glorious works, Parent of good, 
Almighty, thine this universal frame, 
Thus wondrous fair ; thyself how wondrous then ; 
Unspeakable, who sitt'st above these heavens, 
To us invisible, or dimly seen 
In these thy lowest works ; yet these declare 
Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine." 

But this is not all. The elements of nature 
fight for God. Fire, hail, snow, vapour, waves, 
winds, lightnings, contend for the Lord against his 
enemies. 



46 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

Reproof would also come to you from the ani- 
mal creation. The living creatures which have 
this earth for their abode, occupy no position of 
neutrality, my friend. These all speak of Him 
who formed them ; and by the power and skill 
manifest in their structure, by the life which an- 
imates them, and the various powers with which 
they are endowed, tell you that he who made them 
is worthy of exalted praise. These all answer the 
great end of their being, and are employed in 
their several ways in rendering praise to their 
Creator. You witness a song of praise ascending 
from the feathered songsters of the grove ; a trib- 
ute of gratitude and praise from the joy which 
dances in the eye, and is visible in the boundings 
of the young, when nature appears clad in vernal 
loveliness ; in the grazing kine, as they feast on 
the rich luxuriance of the meadow ; and, as to one 
and all of them, in the strict obedience which they 
severally yield to those laws which have been 
given them by their Maker. These do not ask to 
be neutral, do not wish it. 

And can you, a rational creature, endowed with 
such powers, intellectual and moral, as the Al- 
mighty has conferred on you, and after you have 
been afforded such means of acquiring a knowl- 
edge of God's excellences, and your obligations to 
him — oh, can you wish to be in a state of neutral- 
ity ? can it be your desire to be not for him ? Can 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 47 

you satisfy yourself with a heart without love to 
him, a life without service, and lips without praise ? 
If you can, shame on you ! " Solon made a law 
in Athens, that those who, in a sedition, or contest 
of the citizens, refused to take either part, should 
be esteemed infamous." 

But should you have ever so strong a desire to 
occupy a neutral position, or be ever so much 
prone to flatter yourself that if you are not for God, 
you are not against him, the thing is impossible. 
The clear, positive declaration of God in human 
nature, on this subject, should be enough to satisfy 
you and every other rational creature, that such a 
thing is not, cannot be. 

Inasmuch, however, as this is a fond idea with 
some, and may, dear reader, be so with you — inas- 
much as it is a notion which is liable to be clung 
to with a good deal of tenacity, and so prove an 
obstacle to keep the arrows of conviction from 
reaching the heart — I shall attempt to present 
three or four arguments additional to the one 
drawn from the Saviour's affirmation adverted to, 
to show the falsity of such a notion. 

In the first place, then — I can find no position 
of neutrality spoken of or hinted at in the sacred 
scriptures. I have been in the practice of perus- 
ing and searching the scriptures for several years, 
but I have never yet found any thing there to sup- 
port or justify the opinion that a rational, accountable 



48 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

creature, can occupy any such ground. Man- 
kind are moral agents. In that light are they 
contemplated in the sacred volume. Little is there 
said about those inferior and adventitious distinc- 
tions which are so much on the tongue, and are 
made so much account of in this world : such dis- 
tinctions, I mean, as high or low, patrician or 
plebian, rich or poor; illustrious or obscure. These 
are sometimes slightly mentioned in passing, and 
for some ulterior end. The moral distinction I see 
frequently and prominently brought to view in the 
sacred word. I find mankind spoken of, and 
classed as saints and sinners, righteous and wicked, 
believers and unbelievers, penitent and impenitent, 
obedient and disobedient, loyal subjects and rebels, 
friends and enemies of the Lord. I do not, within 
the lids of the Bible, find a third class spoken of, 
and described as neutrals. I find not the least hint 
there, that among all the rational and accountable 
beings that God has made, there are any who do 
not belong to one or other of these two classes. 
No intimation do I find there, that there are any of 
mankind that are neither saints nor sinners, neither 
righteous nor wicked, neither obedient nor dis- 
obedient, neither the friends of the Lord nor his 
enemies. Such a third class is not known in our 
sacred book, and appears not to have been known 
by its Omniscient Author. Neither God the Fa- 
ther nor the Son seems to have found any, just on 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 49 

the line between the two kingdoms of light and 
darkness. If he had, it seems strange that he did 
not make some mention of it ; it certainly would 
have been worthy of mention. 

In the next place — I find mentioned in the sa- 
cred scriptures, but two places of final destination 
for rational, accountable creatures. I find heaven 
and hell spoken of; paradise and perdition; a 
world of glory and a bottomless pit ; a place of 
happiness and a place of misery. I find in no part 
of scripture, the faintest intimation of any medium 
state or place ; of any world where rational crea- 
tures are neither happy nor miserable ; where 
neither pain nor pleasure is felt. Yet such a third 
place, such a middle state, would seem to be called 
for, if any intelligent or accountable creatures 
were neither righteous nor unrighteous, neither 
the friends nor the foes of the Lord. 

Again. We read, in holy writ, of a day of judg- 
ment; and, according to the scriptures, the two 
species, men and angels, will be there judged, that 
is, all the rational and accountable creatures of 
God: For we read of no others. And as to the 
race of mankind, it would appear as though the 
Judge would be at no loss how to arrange or sta- 
tion them, upon their rising to meet him at the 
judgment-seat ; nor what sort of a sentence to pro- 
nounce. We are told, and by him too who is 
to be the judge of quick and dead at the last 



50 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

day, that he will station one portion on his right 
hand — these are called the sheep — and another 
portion on the left — these are termed the goats. 
We read of no others, occupying a third station 
there ; yet we read that all mankind must ap- 
pear before the judgment-seat of Christ. And 
when the sentence is pronounced upon those ap- 
pearing there ; there is* a sentence of acquittal on 
the one hand, and a sentence of condemnation on 
the other. There is a " Come ye blessed of my 
Father ; inherit the kingdom prepared for you" — 
and a u Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." 
Yet, if there were any at the judgment-seat who 
were neither righteous nor wicked, neither for nor 
against the Lord, they would be neither welcomed 
to heaven as good and faithful servants, nor driven 
to despair as foes and rebels. Heaven is a state 
and place of glorious reward; hell a place and 
state of punishment. But if there are any of man- 
kind who neither do good nor evil, are neither for 
the Lord nor against him, they can neither receive 
a blessed reward nor be punished. — If they could 
be : rewarded or punished for what ? rewarded for 
doing no good? punished for doing no evil? 
How absurd ! Or, if you please, rewarded for 
being neutral — a reward bestowed by the judge for 
not doing evil, though no good has been done, no 
service rendered, no love or respect for the person 
and will of the Lord shown. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 51 

Again. By such as imagine that they occupy 
neutral ground, there is no account made of breach- 
es of the positive moral precepts of the Lord. If 
there were any persons occupying a position of 
neutrality, then a breach of the class of precepts 
just mentioned, or a leaving undone of what God 
has commanded to be done, would not be criminal, 
sinful. There could be no sins of omission. Yet 
how large a class of our sins are those falling un- 
der this head. The last words which Archbishop 
Usher was heard to express, were, " Lord, forgive 
my sins, especially my sins of omission." In our 
Lord's account of the day of judgment, found at 
the close of the 25th of Matthew's gospel, what 
class of sins is it, think you, that is assigned or 
alone mentioned there as a reason for sentencing 
the wicked to the place of torment ? Turn to that 
account and see. 

An additional argument, of some weight in my 
view, I will state in an interrogatory form. Con- 
stituted as a human creature is, can he have a 
neutral state of mind or heart in reference to any 
two known great and opposing objects or interests? 
You look upon two contending armies, or two con- 
tending individuals — will you not detect yourself 
having a preponderating feeling on one side or the 
other ? You hear two men in argument on some 
important topic — will your mind or heart remain 
in a state of entire neutrality? will it lean toward 



52 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

neither side ? Or, let us have a case directly in 
point. Here are presented to our notice, two great 
causes or interests in the moral universe: The 
cause of sin and the cause of holiness, or of right- 
eousness and unrighteousness — the cause of light, 
and the cause of darkness — Christ and his king- 
dom, and the adversary and his. Can we remain 
in a state of neutrality in reference to each ? Can 
we keep from a bias or leaning one way or the 
other ? Is it possible for our bosom to remain void 
of a feeling of preponderance ? No — w T e would 
have to lose our nature ; we would have to be dif- 
ferently constituted, before such a thing could be 
experienced or witnessed. Carry this as a truth 
with you : Rational creatures, without an excep- 
tion, either love or hate the Almighty ; are, where 
his name is known, either friends or foes to Christ. 
It would indeed, dear reader, be a high misde- 
meanor not to love and serve such a Being as is 
our Lord Christ, and standing in such relations to 
us as does he. A want of love and obedience is a 
great want truly in a rational and moral being, 
and situated too as fallen man is. But in the case 
of mankind, where there is a want of this sort, 
the want does not exist alone. There is an oppo- 
site bias, an opposite feeling ; and an opposite 
course. The carnal mind is not represented, in 
sacred scripture, as in any case, or at any time, 
neutral in reference to God and his spiritual king- 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 53 

dom. No — there is no neutrality under the moral 
government of God ; no neutrality in relation to 
the Messiah and his kingdom. You and I, reader, 
as well as others of the human family, are feeling 
and acting either as friends or as foes of Immanuel, 
and will be dealt with hereafter as friends or 
foes. 

Even if any persons could be found who did not 
feel or act either for or against our Lord, or for or 
against any matter pertaining to the great cause of 
morals or of holiness in our world — would the in- 
fluence flowing out of that neutrality as to feeling 
and action, be itself neutral or nothing? No. He 
who has it in his power to favour or aid any good 
cause, and does not, injures it. If he did not feel 
or act against it, the fact of his not feeling or act- 
ing, exerts an influence against it. A good cause 
of any sort has a right to support, a just claim to 
encouragement ; and, by any who have it in their 
power to yield it, aid cannot innocently be with- 
held. Even the influence of withholding it is 
bad; and a man is responsible for his influence. 
If you have any doubt as to the existence of such 
right, or just claim, as we spoke of in the sentence 
before the last, just read the two following passages 
of scripture : — " Withhold not good from them to 
whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine 
hand to do it. — As we have therefore opportunity, 
let us do good unto all men." 



54 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

Finally. — That to a rational creature there is no 
such position as that of neutrality, I think may be 
shown in the two following sentences, one from 
myself, and the other from a better source : to-wit — 
During our wakeful moments, our outward man is 
mostly, and our inner man always acting. " Wheth- 
er therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do 
all to the glory of God." 

Are you not convinced, my reader, that there is, 
can be, no such ground or position as that of neu- 
trality ? What then is your position ? In a state 
of impenitence, unconversion, you belong to the 
class of the wicked. You are against the Lord ; 
against the kingdom of light and righteousness ; 
against Christ and his cause. You are on the 
side of God's enemies, and doing the work of an 
enemy of God. Instead of favouring Christ's 
great enterprise of setting up a spiritual kingdom 
in this world, you are opposed to it, and operate 
against it. You are unwilling to become a subject 
of that kingdom ; to pray and labour for its ad- 
vancement ; are unwilling to give yourself to God 
and serve him. You are a servant of his adver- 
sary. Your feelings, your influence, your efforts, 
are on the side of the prince of darkness and his 
cause. Think of this your position. Meditate on 
what you are, where you are, what you are about. 
It was shown in one part of this chapter, that if 
you were or wished to be neutral, it would be 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 55 

shameful — that all inanimate nature and the whole 
animal creation would cry out against or reprove 
you. What then must these say, and what must 
be thought, felt, and said by all holy creatures, 
when the fact is so much worse ? when you are 
against such a Being as God is ? against him who 
made you, who preserves you, blesses you ? against 
such an one as is Christ ? against such a kingdom 
and cause as his % O my friend, you are no neg- 
ative character, no neutral creature. You are in 
the battle-field ; your armour girded on ; your 
heart, hands, weapons busy in the conflict ; war- 
ring against the Lord and his anointed ! Au- 
dacious, wicked creature, what will you gain by 
it? Are you so deranged as to imagine that you 
and your party will be victors % Think of the 
power that Omnipotence can wield ; of the variety 
and vastness of the forces which the infinite God 
can employ. Can you, and the whole army to 
which you belong, possibly escape defeat, destruc- 
tion ? Now, be entreated to stop ; to throw off 
your vile armour ; to come over on the Lord's side. 
I wish to see you on a side so good. It is my de- 
sire to behold you among the conquerors, and 
wearing the conqueror's crown. 



56 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE DECIDING SEASON. 

Accustomed, beloved reader, to peruse the Vol- 
ume indited by the Infinite Mind, and presented by 
the best of Fathers, because he knew I needed it, 
my eyes were to-day running over a chapter in 
one of the minor prophets, when this lively pas- 
sage particularly attracted my attention : " Multi- 
tudes, multitudes in the valley of decision ; for the 
day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.' 7 
"Valley of decision 1" said I to myself; "what 
valley may that be ?"* May not the prophet mean 
this terrestrial vale ? For earth is a valley, having 
higher worlds on each side of it ; and perhaps the 
only valley in the universe, except that deeper one 
where lost spirits dwell. It was once not so. The 
period was, and the angels remember it, when it 

* It is possible that the final decisive conflict of true relig- 
ion with, and victory over, the powers of darkness, and every 
thing that sets itself in opposition to it, may be that which is 
specially alluded to or foretold in these words. But even 
supposing such to be the case, there can be no impropriety in 
making them suggestive of the train of thought and remark 
pursued in this chapter. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 57 

stood a lofty eminence in the vast kingdom of 
God. Its location was contiguous to Heaven. 
But it was, long since, sunk by sin into the low 
valley we see it. Yet low as it is sunk, it attracts 
the notice of the loftiest created intelligences, and 
of the great Creator besides, because of a remark- 
able peculiarity belonging to it. It is, as the 
prophet denominates it, u the valley of decision ;" 
and the only spot perhaps in the boundless uni- 
verse that is entitled to such a denomination. 

Yes, reader ; this world, or the state of being 
this side the grave, is, to the moral and accountable 
creatures of the human kind, "the valley of deci- 
sion," is the great deciding period or portion of hu- 
man existence. Immediately successive to the fall, 
it is true, it did not so appear. It then seemed as 
though man's destiny was finally determined ; as 
if the decisive step had been taken that sealed his 
doom. And, certainly, man did not deserve to 
have any other opportunity afforded him. But 
through the astonishing benevolence and pity of 
Jehovah, the apostates were thrown under a dis- 
pensation of mercy. Under the present divine 
arrangement, this world is what the prophet calls 
it, li the valley of decision." So soon in life as 
moral agency commences, mankind begin, individ- 
ually, to decide for themselves, as to the various 
parts and parcels of their general conduct ; as to 
the thoughts of their minds, the feelings of their 



58 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

hearts, the several actions, one after another, of 
their lives; as to the character they will sustain, 
and the condition they will be in, not only during 
this short and uncertain life, but for ever. 

You are not, reader, no one wearing your nature 
is, a mere piece of machinery. Neither you nor 
your brethren are under the power or operation of 
blind, rigid, unbending fate. The thoughts, emo- 
tions, words, and acts of the human creature are 
not the product of any irresistible, fatal necessity. 
It could not be said of these, severally, that they 
are of a moral nature, were this the fact. Man- 
kind could not, with any shadow of reason or pro- 
priety, be held responsible for these, or be regarded 
as accountable beings, were this the fact. They 
severally possess a moral sense and a will. They 
are both capable of acting, and do act voluntarily ; 
in view and under the influence of motives. Their 
mental exercises and outward acts are not like the 
motions or pulsations of the heart. These last, as 
you know, do not originate from, nor are under the 
control of the will. Our wise and benevolent 
Creator has placed what is so related and essential 
to life's preservation under a law of a different sort, 
a law which the will has nothing special to do 
with. But as to their moral exercises and acts, 
mankind, in a certain sense and degree, have the 
power of deciding, and do determine for them- 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 59 

selves, beforehand, of what sort or character they 
shall be. 

The moral agent performs every one of his ac- 
tions from motive — under the exercise of the power 
of choice. A separate volition precedes and gives 
birth to every thing you do. The traveller to eter- 
nity takes not a single step in his journey, without 
first determining that he will take that step ; nor 
without deciding what sort of a step it shall be. 

The moral agent, whilst he is located this side 
the grave, is emphatically in the valley of decision. 
Every day and hour of his life, when awake, is he 
employed in deciding what his feelings, actions, 
habits, and state shall be. Look at him any hour 
or moment of his life, when sleep holds not its do- 
minion over him, and you may find him employed 
in acts of decision. Continually may you behold 
him occupied in throwing into the one scale or the 
other, weights possessing in themselves a particular 
character, and which go toward deciding, more- 
over, what he is to be, and where he is to be, 
through an existence which is never to terminate. 
The righteous man takes not a step in the path of 
righteousness, nor the sinner in the way of rebel- 
lion or evil, without by a particular act of the 
mind deciding to take that step ; and that step 
taken, goes toward deciding what and where he 
shall be, or, if you please, what shall be his char- 
acter and condition, everlastingly. 



60 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

In casting your thoughts back, dear reader, on 
your past life, can you not discover that in every 
instance, before you did any thing, you decided 
what you would do, and, consequently, what sort 
of a creature, in a moral respect, you would at that 
time be? 

Have you been altogether or mostly a prayer- 
less creature ? Say, reader, have you neglected or 
restrained prayer before God ? Has this been your 
habit ? You were not ignorant of what was your 
duty in this particular, for you have been reared in 
a land of bibles, of sabbaths, and of sanctuaries. 
You have known that it was your duty to call on 
the Lord, statedly, affectionately, belie vingly. You 
have known that the great God has commanded 
you to offer supplications unto him, and to pray 
without ceasing. If you have neglected what 
you thus knew to be your duty — if you have been 
a prayerless creature — then have you decided, 
daily and hourly decided, that you would be so j 
that you would not call on God — would not pre- 
sent praises and petitions unto him. The call 
from God to you has been, " Pray." By your 
neglect you have decided that you would not com- 
ply with his call. Every day and hour, during a 
long season, have you, either directly or indirectly, 
come to a decision to act the part of a transgressor 
of this command ; resolved in substance, each day, 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 61 

hour, that you would not, in this matter, obey the 
Lord. 

Reader, the Divine Being has enjoined it on 
you as a duty, to love him supremely ; to give un- 
to him your heart. You have known this to be 
a duty. Have you, in your past life, done this ? If 
you have failed to do it, you have been guilty not 
of one single act of sin here, simply. There has 
been by you an awful repetition of acts of dis- 
obedience to this command. Consider yourself as 
having, every da}' and hour for years together, 
been engaged in acts of decision ; as having de- 
cided, moment after moment, all that period, that 
you would not give your heart to the Lord ; that 
you would not love him supremely. And con- 
sider, likewise, all of these separate acts as telling 
on your eternal state ; as going to modify, or in 
some manner and measure to affect and decide on 
your character and condition beyond this dawn of 
existence. For, every single moral exercise and 
act stretches, as to its consequences, into the vast, 
limitless futurity ; goes with you, somehow, into 
the unseen world, and runs with you along the 
whole line of an interminable duration. 

Reader, Jehovah has, during your past life, been 
calling on you, every day and hour, to repent of 
your sins, and turn from your estrangement and 
your wanderings unto him. You have not been 
ignorant of the fact. You have been acquainted 



62 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

with this call, or rather with the countlessly re- 
peated calls of this kind. Have you been occu- 
pied in complying with this call ? Or are }'ou, up 
to this hour, an impenitent sinner? If so, then 
have you, every day and hour since the period that 
your moral agency commenced, been deciding not 
to obey that command of Heaven; not to repent 
and turn to the Lord. Hour after hour, during all 
that season, you decided that you would live in 
sin ; would walk at least that hour in a way dis- 
pleasing to God. 

You have been called on, reader, by your 
Maker, during all of your past life since you be- 
came a moral agent, to cast yourself on the atone- 
ment of Jesus, and bathe your polluted soul in the 
fountain which he has opened ; have been com- 
manded to part with all for the Pearl of great 
price ; to throw away every idol ; to give up your 
love of sin, repudiate the world, and come and fol- 
low Christ. Has this been done by you ? You 
were acquainted with the fact that this was your 
duty. Have you obeyed ? Or have you contin- 
ued to this hour away from the best Friend that poor 
fallen creatures ever had. Have you refused to come 
and take Jesus of Nazareth for your Saviour and 
portion ? If so, remember that your refusal, du- 
ring so long a season, has not been one act simply. 
It has been a continued repetition of acts of re- 
fusal. You have decided, over and over again, 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 63 

each day and hour up to this, that you would not 
act toward Christ as you knew it to be your duty 
to do. 

If you, dear reader, are yet unreconciled to God, 
you have determined, in repeated instances, that 
you would not be reconciled to him. Whenever 
you have sinned, you have, in your mind, decided 
to break some commandment of the Heavenly 
King. How much and often have you, in your 
past life, been the subject of gospel invitation, prof- 
fer, counsel, and entreaty, and as often decided that 
you would not accept of the one, nor be influenced 
by the other. 

Reader, you have, on the whole, in your past 
life, been quite favourably situated, for deciding in 
a manner pleasing to God, and advantageous to 
yourself. An ancient philosopher used to bless the 
gods for three privileges — " That he was made, not 
a brute, but a rational creature ; that he was born, 
not in barbarous climes, but in Greece ; and that 
he lived, not in the more uncultivated ages, but in 
the time and under the tuition of Socrates." How 
much greater reason have you and I to bless God 
that we were born in gospel times ; had our lot 
cast in such a land ; and been afforded such light 
and privileges. You know that mankind are not 
all situated in a manner equally favourable for ar- 
riving at a correct decision in reference to conduct 
and the lofty interests of salvation. Look at those 



64 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

millions of human creatures, for example, who in- 
habit the dark, dreary deserts of Paganism. How 
unhappily circumstanced are they, comparatively, 
for deciding right. They have the light of nature, 
it is true. The great volume of creation is spread 
open before them. If they would read that book 
as they should, and follow what it teaches, they 
would have no other object of worship than the 
true God. It is under the influence of a corrupt, 
wicked heart, that they will not learn from that 
book, who and what the true God is ; and that 
they offer worship to idols. How irrationally they 
act. "At Buhapurum, in the northern Cicars, a 
child about eight years old, who had been educated 
in Christianity, was ridiculed on that account 
by some heathens older than himself. In reply, 
he repeated what he had been taught respecting 
God. 'Show us your God!' said the heathens. 
1 1 cannot do that, 7 answered the child ; 'but I can 
show you yours.' Taking up a stone, and daubing 
with some resemblance of a human face, he placed 
it very gravely upon the ground, and pushing it 
towards them with his foot ; i There/ said he, ' is 
such a god as you worship.' " The idolatrous 
heathen ought to know better. They live not up 
to the light they have. But there is a sort of light 
which you have, that the greater part of the 
pagans are wholly destitute of: The light of the 
Gospel. Should any one ask me the question, 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 65 

tt Will not the better sort of heathens go to Heav- 
en ?" I might be tempted to reply to him in the 
language of a certain clergyman who was asked 
the same question by a fellow-passenger in a stage 
coach. " Sir," answered the clergyman, " I am 
not appointed judge of the world, and consequently 
will not take it upon me peremptorily to decide 
that point ; but if you ever get to heaven, you 
shall either find them there, or a good reason why 
they are not." I am willing to say, in general 
terms, that I cannot believe the heathen to be hap- 
pily situated for deciding aright in reference to 
salvation. The apostolic commission assumes that 
they are not. The Macedonian cry assumes it. 
And I am determined not to be hasty in entertain- 
ing a sentiment which would virtually accuse 
Christ of unnecessarily appointing a ministry, or 
enjoining on them a superfluous work ; and a sen- 
timent too which would virtually excuse the church 
of Christ from putting forth effort to send the* gos- 
pel, and as quickly as possible, to every portion of 
the heathen world. If the heathen do not need the 
gospel, if they are well enough off, or their pros- 
pects as to salvation fair, without it, why send it to 
them ? I may drop the additional remark that the 
heathen do not appear generally to be preparing 
for so pure a place as Heaven ; nor, by worship- 
ping idols, to be getting ready to offer worship for- 
ever to the one only true God. How much better 
6* 



66 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

situated have you, all your life, been, than are the 
heathen, to decide correctly in reference to the va- 
rious branches of human duty, and the nature and 
means of salvation. 

And even within the bounds of Christendom 
how many localities are there, where the people are 
much less advantageously circumstanced than 
yourself, to decide right as to each of these matters. 
Suppose you had been born and reared in Italy, or 
Spain, or Portugal, or France, or South America, 
how comparatively unhappy would have been your 
condition as regards the point now claiming our 
notice. O my friend, under such advantages as 
you, all your life, have been favoured with, may 
you not be said to be in the highest degree inex- 
cusable if you do not decide to act after such a 
manner as to secure the approving smiles of 
Heaven, and as to issue in your own welfare, tem- 
poral and eternal ? 

From what you read in the earlier part of this 
chapter, you could not fail, unconverted reader, to 
discover that you have not been inactive ; that you 
have been very busy ; have been active in the 
solemn business, substantially, of deciding where 
you will have your home in eternity. This mat- 
ter has not been fully and finally decided as yet by 
you, probably ; and the reason of this is, because 
you are not yet out of " the valley of decision." But 
permit me affectionately to say, that if you con- 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 67 

tinue, up to the close of life, to do as you in time 
past have done ; if you continue to yield to temp- 
tation, and to be governed by adverse influences 
from within and without, as you have been ; if you 
persist in deciding, from day to day, for a while 
longer, not to pray ; not to repent ; not to put away 
your idols, nor forsake your sins ; and not to be a 
believer in and a follower of Christ — then, your 
decision as to your eternal state will be, that you 
will lie down in sorrow ; that you will " dwell in 
everlasting burnings." 

But if, on the contrary, in your future of this 
life, under the influences of conscience, of prov- 
idential calls, of divine truth, of pulpit and private 
appeal, and of the Holy Spirit, you shall come to 
a decision of a different character — if, under such 
influences, you shall decide on repenting, return- 
ing by the way of the cross to the God of Jacob, 
and on living a life of faith, and self-denial, and 
holy obedience, then will you effectually decide 
that heaven shall be your home ; that your eyes 
shall gaze on your enthroned Redeemer ; and that 
all holy creatures, human and seraphic, shall con- 
stitute the society with which you shall mingle for- 
ever and ever. 

In eternity, dear reader, all is fixed, unalterable. 
There is no deciding season allotted to man there. 
There is no change of character or condition be- 
yond the cold river of death ; no passing from sin 



68 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

to holiness ; no possibility of getting from hell to 
heaven. On this, not on the other side of the 
tomb, lies what the prophet calls " the valley of 
decision." 

Besides yourself, there are very large numbers 
in this valley. The prophet, in the passage to 
which we have adverted, exclaims, " Multitudes, 
multitudes !" The word is repeated to express an 
amazing number. Of those of the human family 
who have already gone to eternity, and whose 
case, therefore, for everlasting ages is decided, 
finally, irreversibly decided, the number is beyond 
our power of reckoning. But there are great mul- 
titudes still this side of death's cold flood, and so in 
" the valley of decision." The human beings at 
this time on the globe, amount to some 850,000,000. 
If we subtract from this number, all in a state of 
infancy; all the sad subjects of idiocy; and all 
w r ho have committed the unpardonable sin, or who 
have grieved away finally the Spirit of God— there 
still remain enough on the earth, who are occu- 
pied in the solemn, tremendous work of deciding 
in reference to interests of inconceivable magni- 
tude — in deciding their eternal destiny as to weal 
or woe ; to constrain us to cry* with the prophet, 
"Multitudes, multitudes!" Oh, what millions 
upon millions are now engaged in deciding, not 
whether they will win worlds or not — something 
of greater moment than that — in deciding whether 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 69 

they will go to paradise or to perdition ; whether 
they will soar and sing with angels, or sink and 
sigh with devils, for evermore ; whether they will 
bathe, world without end, in the river of God's 
pleasures, or writhe in the flames which almighty 
wrath has kindled for the just punishment of all 
the finally impenitent and ungodly. And oh, 
how it makes one's heart bleed to think how large 
a proportion are deciding wrong, wrong — deciding 
that they will persist in their evil courses, and so, 
substantially deciding that they will go to ruin. 
But we cannot dwell on this mournful point. 

In the concluding clause of the passage to which 
allusion has been made, the prophet says, " The 
day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." 
" The day of the Lord" here, is the day of judg- 
ment ; either of the general, or of a particular 
judgment. So soon as a human creature dies, en- 
ters eternity, he undergoes a particular judgment, 
and, as a result of it, is sent immediately either to 
heaven or to hell. The affirmation that " the day 
of the Lord is near in the valley of decision," im- 
ports that human beings do not stay long in this 
valley. It seems clearly to denote that they have 
but a brief season allotted them in which to de- 
cide whether they will be holy and happy, or un- 
holy and miserable creatures forever; — that the 
period in which they will severally be judged is 
near, from any, every part of this valley. The 



70 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

particular judgment of individuals comes imme- 
diately after death. u After death the judgment.'* 
Now death is near, so near that his footsteps may 
almost be heard by every one from any. even the 
most remote part of the valley of decision. Alas ! 
how near is the day of the Lord to v the various in- 
dividuals that are clad in the livery of mortal flesh. 
That valley of decision which the now living de- 
scendants of Adam occupy, will, in a few days at 
most, be occupied by another generation. That 
valley how narrow in every part, and is more and 
more so the farther one moves along in it. Ah, 
what numbers of its fleeting occupants would like 
to have it wider, even as wide as it was before the 
flood. How much was its width diminished, so to 
speak, by that catastrophe ; and how much more 
has it since been narrowed by the waters of time. 
EIow many, considering how infinitely momen- 
tuous is the matter to be decided on, would be great- 
ly gratified, if the Ruler over boundless space and 
duration would take a portion of what now belongs 
to eternity and add to it, to increase its breadth. 
This, however, there is no prospect of his being 
persuaded to do. He had his reasons for bringing 
it down to the width it now is. And it is very 
much to be doubted too, whether mankind would 
do any better on the whole, in the work of decision, 
if it were made wider. But oh, it is an exceed- 
ingly " narrow neck of land," and lying fearfully 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. > 71 

u betwixt two boundless seas." I tremble when I 
think of it. Alas, what danger of being pushed, 
or of sliding off of it, any hour, moment, into the 
deeper vale of eternity ! Reader, can you tell 
what will be on the morrow ? what a day may 
bring forth ? Is not your case then, for the vast, 
unending perpetuity of being before you, nearly 
decided ? May not your soul, this night, be required 
of you? The brief interval may be the whole 
of what remains to you before your bark is tossing 
on the waves of the boundless ocean. Your pen- 
cil may, the very next moment, give the finishing 
touch to your eternity. Take care — do it wfcll. 
When the prince of poets was asked by a friend, 
w T hy he studied so much accuracy in the plan of 
his poems, the propriety of his characters, and the 
purity of his diction, he replied, 4i In seternum 
pingo" — I paint for eternity. Oh, does it not be- 
hoove a creature to do well, what he does for eter- 
nity? Alas, impenitent reader, what a frightful, 
horrid picture, it is that you have employed your 
time hitherto in drawing. If, in your everlasting 
state, you shall have no more comely one to look 
upon, you will be poorly off indeed. Ah, paint a 
better picture, dear friend, and be about it; you 
have no time to lose. The little season yet to 
come is all of life that you have, to prepare for a 
blissful immortality. The worse than wasted past, 
if you had to add to it, you might well be glad. 



72 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

But it is irrevocable. " Time is eternity ; preg- 
nant with all eternity can give ;" but precious, in- 
valuable as it is, you have but little of it left. Act 
henceforth as if you thought every moment of it 
above all price. It has been reported of an illus- 
trious female sovereign that when dying, her agon- 
izing language was, " Millions of worlds, millions 
of worlds, for a day!" 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. v 73 



CHAPTER V. 

THE HEART'S WICKEDNESS. 

u To know our disease is half the cure." If 
you, reader, are diseased within, it is very impor- 
tant for you to know it. That you have a bad in- 
ward disorder, One Being in the universe appears 
to know ; and to this Teacher allow me to send 
you for instruction. Opening the Book from 
Heaven, turn, for example, first, to Jeremiah xvii. 9 
— w The heart is deceitful above all things, and 
desperately wicked." What heart? whose heart? 
you may inquire. We reply, The human heart ; 
the heart of fallen man— of course, your heart. 
Wherever amongst our species, you find an un- 
changed, unregenerate heart, you come across just 
such an one as is here described. If a truth, dear 
reader, what a truth is this ! How humiliating ! 
How great need of a physician ; of an all-power- 
ful remedy. If a truth, how great the necessity of 
crying, Lord, heal ; Lord, save ! 

That the heart is not, and, ever since the occur- 
rence of that great moral catastrophe, the fall, has 
not been in just so good a state as it might and 
7 



74 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

should be is, I presume, not a very uncommon 
opinion among men. Most persons, probably, 
would be willing to admit that it might as well be 
somewhat different from what it naturally is. But 
they have an impression so faint respecting its dis- 
ordered state ; they see and feel so little of the 
evil, the wickedness, that is lodged there, that they 
take no pains to have it eradicated : are very indif- 
ferent about having this important part of them 
put in a healthy or proper state. Beloved reader, 
do not think me cruel or wanting in tenderness be- 
cause I say it : — I would like to have you a dis- 
tressed, agitated creature. If I could have my 
wish, you 4 should so see yourself, that you could 
not rest, day nor night, till a wondrous change took 
place upon you. I would have you mourn, and 
weep, and be in deep trouble, because of the root 
of bitterness, the filthy fountain, within you. I 
would have you smite upon your breast, and cry, 
Alas ! alas ! what a heart ! what a desperately 
wicked heart I have ! 

The mass of evidence is great, going to show 
that the human heart is just what God, in the verse 
you a moment ago read, asserts concerning it. I 
can, within the compass of a chapter, lay before 
your mind but a small part of the proof of the 
great, exceeding wickedness of the human heart. 
It would be necessary to give a history of the 
species from the fall of man downward, if we 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 75 

would say all that might be said in proof of this. 
To the omniscient One, your heart, and the hearts 
of all men, lie naked and open. There is no 
darkness nor disguise that can in the least conceal 
the inner man from his scrutiny. God's testimony 
you cannot but see to be important in this matter, 
and in the Bible you have it. It is clear and di- 
rect. Cast your eye again upon the passage you 
read : " The heart is deceitful above all things, and 
desperately wicked." Here you observe to be lan- 
guage too plain of import to be misunderstood or 
evaded. It is the direct assertion of Him who 
searches the heart, and who cannot lie. Turn 
next to Eccl. ix. 3 — " Y^a also the heart of the 
sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their 
heart while they live." Mark the expression- — 
"Full of evil" Turn to Gen. vi. 5, " And God 
saw that the wickedness of man was great on the 
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts 
of his heart was only evil continually." Look at 
Job xvi. 15, "How much more abominable and 
filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water." 
It was said of Jesus Christ that he knew all men, 
and needed not that any should testify of them : 
for he knew what was in man. Now, what did 
Jesus Christ say concerning the human heart ? — 
" For within, out of the heart," said he, " proceed 
evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lascivious- 



76 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

ness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." 
Such is Christ's testimony ; and sound philosophy 
agrees with it. Sin has its seat in the heart. 
There is no sin in word or deed which is not first 
in the heart. " An evil man, out of the evil treas- 
ure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is 
evil." The evil treasure I Here is the spring 
and source of all moral evil in our world. Here 
the spot whence comes the gall ; the root of bitter- 
ness which produces the wormwood. A clergy- 
man, who had preached a sermon on innate de- 
pravity, was waited on by some persons, who 
stated their objections to what he had advanced. 
After hearing them he said, " I hope you do not 
deny actual sin too ?" " No," they replied. The 
good man expressed his satisfaction at their ac- 
knowledgement. "But," said he, "did you ever 
see a tree growing without a root ?" 

As in the heavens there are stars whose light has 
never yet reached mortal eyes, and in the earth's 
depths much embosomed that never became subject 
to human gaze, so are there heights and depths of 
wickedness in man's heart which never come to 
the light of day ; which no eye sees save one ; — 
a great deal of sin embosomed in the heart which 
never becomes embodied in overt action. Still, 
there is a tremendous flood that is visible ; a moral 
deluge that seems sometimes to threaten every 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 77 

thing good and fair — to upset the everlasting hills, 
and tear down the universe. 

Jehovah, forming our opinions of Him from his 
manifestations, what is he ? What, as he shines in 
the sun ; glows in the bestudded and lustrous fir- 
mament ; and breathes in the luxuriance and 
beauty of this lower sphere? What, as he 
stretches forth his full hand to supply the wants of 
every living thing ? What, as he marches forth 
to tread down oppression and wrong, and vindicate 
the just? And, above all, what, as he shines in 
the face of Jesus Christ ? Oh, what excellence 
and loveliness beam in his character ! What 
wisdom, benevolence, and pity in his countenance ! 
Saint and seraph on high admire him; love him 
with an affection supreme; and praise him day 
and night in his temple. But, does the unre- 
generate sinner's soul admire, or his heart love 
God? Reader, need I answer the question for 
you? Judging from what you perceive and feel, 
are you not constrained to say, no ? Said Christ, 
on a certain occasion, to the Jews, " I know you 
that ye have not. the love of God in you." But 
alas ! this is not true of that people alone. The 
race, except so far as grace has operated, have not 
the love of God in them. Now, how wicked must 
the heart of man be, how wicked your heart, when 
it loves not such a Being as is Jehovah ! For 
what the infinitely glorious God is in Himself, 
7* 



78 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

every object in the universe, both animate and m- 
animatej is exhorted and ordered to extol his great 
name. But is the order heeded and obeyed by 
all ? By all, it may be answered, except — except 
sinners. These do not praise Him ; they have no 
heart to it. 

No ; nor do they care even to know Him. The 
major part of mankind are idolaters. How be- 
came they so ? The sacred scriptures tell us how. 
It was because they u did not like to retain God in 
their knowledge." The very existence of idolatry 
testifies that the human heart must be very wicked. 
Reason, occupied in scanning the Creator's works, 
would have arrived at a conclusion very different 
from what have the heathen. Exercised aright, it 
would have preserved to entire humanity the 
knowledge of the true God. But depravity, it ap- 
pears, was too strong for reason. The heart ran 
away with the head. Hence idols were substituted 
in the room of the everliving and everblessed 
God ; the religion of Paganism for the true re- 
ligion. But for the wickedness of the human 
heart, idolatry would have never stained and de- 
faced the earth. The true God would have been 
every where known but for it. 

We have said that the natural human heart has 
not the love of God in it. But this is not all we 
can in truth say. It has the exact opposite ; has 
hatred, aversion. "The carnal mind is enmity 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 79 

against God." In many ways does the natural 
heart exhibit its dislike to the Deity. When occa- 
sions present themselves, how does it rise and 
swell against his holiness, justice, power, authority, 
will. Opposed to these ? what a heart ! 

There is prayer: How does unregenerate hu- 
manity stand affected toward it? Does she in her 
totality, and with utmost ardour of desire, seek af- 
ter communion with, and bow the knee to the Fa- 
ther of spirits ? Does she run with willing feet, or 
on swift pinions fly, to the private and the public 
altar, there to present an offering to the Lord of 
Hosts? From the Bible, and from the upper skies, 
great inducements are held out to her, to act the 
part of a petitioner. But her heart feels repug- 
nance, and her tongue is mute. "Ask and re- 
ceive," says Heaven. But she refuses ; says, no, 
I will not. Needy as she is, and tremblingly aw- 
ful as is her exposure, she cannot be moved to 
spread forth her hands in supplication. What tale, 
reader, does this tell about the heart ? Ah, your 
present feelings and past life bear a certain sort of 
testimony on this subject. 

Gratitude : alas, would this word have been 
seen in the dictionary of mortals, had not the 
principle of which the word is expressive been 
originated by grace ? Poor, fallen humanity has 
a very cold, ungrateful heart. As much as she is 
accustomed to receive from the Divine Donor, she 



80 - THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

is not accustomed to thank Him for his gifts. She 
sits down at his full-spread board, and rises from it, 
without so much as thinking of Him by whom it 
was furnished. Whilst the face of the beast turn- 
eth downwards, to her was given a face to turn 
upward, that she might observe the source whence 
her blessings come, and lift up her heart and 
voice in thankfulness to the exalted Dispenser. 
But her face she, nevertheless, chooses to turn in 
the same direction with that of the mere animal. 
The night cometh, and also the morning, but the 
returns of neither season witnesses from her the 
offering of thanksgiving. Ah, human heart, how 
steeped in ingratitude ! how worse than bestial ! 
If thy heart, reader, was not very wicked, couldst 
thou live a life so unthankful ? 

How does unsanctified humanity act toward the 
Bible ? What an invaluable boon. Its truths how 
unspeakably precious and important. God has 
taken a great deal of pains, so to speak, to commu- 
nicate to mankind its contents. Yet, how much is 
that book depreciated and neglected. It is treated 
very much as if it were thought unworthy of be- 
lief or of notice. If its truths were relished, loved, 
would the book of God be so much slighted, think 
you ? If the heart were not desperately wicked, 
would not its truths be more highly prized than 
thousands of gold and silver — indeed, than all ma- 
terial good ? 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 81 

If mankind are the creatures of God, then has 
he a right to be their Lawgiver. Laws have come 
to them from him. Their excellence shows their 
origin. Like himself they are holy, just, and 
good. In them he commands nothing except what 
ought to be done ; forbids nothing except what 
ought to be avoided. Man's interest unites with 
his duty in calling on him to obey them ! Are 
they generally obeyed by the sons and daughters 
of Adam? The Most High speaks. Do man- 
kind, one and all, listen ? He issues his com- 
mands. Do his creatures of earth stand ready to 
execute them ? Does it not seern, on the contrary, 
as though the human family had purposely set 
themselves at doing just the opposite of what the 
Divine Lawgiver and Sovereign enjoins? Now 
would mankind thus act unless their inward part 
were very wickedness ? The manner in which 
the third and fourth precepts of the decalogue are 
treated, tells a loud tale against the human heart. 
With so little temptation to profanity as there is — 
so unprofitable, mean, and contemptible a vice is 
it, that really it seems as though the heart must be 
full to overflowing of wickedness, or such a stream 
would never be seen running from it. And as to 
the sabbath, that precious institution, a day of all 
the week the best," which should be specially em- 
ployed in laying up better than earthly treasures, 
in preparing for a better than an earthly home — 



82 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

how are its sacred hours desecrated ! How is the 
Lord God insulted instead of honoured on that 
holy day. With what multitudes is it a day of di- 
version instead of devotion. 

How are the human family disposed to treat 
God's greatest gift to men — his " Unspeakable 
Gift?" Do they hail the approach of the Son of 
God with joy ? Are they charmed with the bril- 
liancy and beauty of this u bright and morning 
star ?" A pious young Indian girl said, " I have 
often heard christians undertake to tell of the ex- 
cellency that is in Christ ; but their tongues are too 
short to express the beauty and love which are con- 
tained in this lovely Jesus." Some regard him, 
and justly, as " the chief among ten thousand, 
yea, altogether lovely" — but "only comparatively a 
few, and they such as have undergone a wonderful 
transformation, been u created anew." Can it be 
said of the multitude that he and his salvation are 
welcomed to their hearts? Are they willing to 
part with every thing for a share in his favour, or 
an interest in his propitiatory sacrifice % He " came 
unto his own" — what reception or treatment did he 
meet with from them ? It is said of the Rev. Dr. 
Robertson, the celebrated Scotch historian, that 
preaching once in the forenoon, he affirmed in the 
words of the ancient heathen— Ci That if perfect 
virtue were to descend to the earth, clothed in a 
human form, all the world would fall prostrate 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 83 

and worship her." In the afternoon, Dr. Erskine, 
preaching in the same pulpit, remarked, on the 
contrary — Ci That perfect virtue, in the human na- 
ture of the Saviour of mankind had indeed ap- 
peared on the earth ; but, instead of being univer- 
sally worshipped, the general cry of his country- 
men was, Crucify him, crucify him." By other 
people, and other, later generations, has there, I 
ask, been a general and wide outstretching of the 
arms to receive him? Is he thus received by the 
present generation ? Need I answer, no ! Though 
he makes them the proffer of treasures exhaustless, 
and a crown unfading, if they will turn from their 
iniquities and follow him ; yet even that invaluable 
offer induces not the multitude, induces but here 
and there one, to renounce their sins, cast them- 
selves upon the virtues of his sacrifice, and live in 
a way pleasing to him. He assures them that 
they are in the road to an awful and eternal hell, 
where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched, and that besides himself there is no 
Saviour; and though he says', Believe and be 
saved — yet are the multitude too much in love 
with sin, and too much bent on the practice of it, 
to heed and obey. They will take sin and death 
in preference to holiness and life. If this, reader, 
does not go to show that the heart is exceedingly 
wicked, what can ? 

Again. Why are the convictions, produced by 



84 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

the Spirit of God, so often stifled or worn away ? 
Why, when the sinner is, in some measure, brought 
to see his sin and his danger, and tremble through 
fear of coming wrath, does it so often occur, 
that there is a fighting with the Spirit, and a re- 
turn to carelessness, but because the heart is so 
very wicked that it is unwilling to yield itself up 
to Christ's claims and sway, or part with its loved 
idols and sins? There would be no grieving of 
the Spirit of God, no stifling of conviction, no 
great, mighty efforts to lull the awakened con- 
science by deadly opiates, if it were not for the 
heart's desperate wickedness. If it were only a 
little wicked, it would be far less reluctant to part 
with sin. It would maintain, if any, a much less 
strenuous conflict with an awakened conscience, 
and with the Spirit of God. 

Again. Look at the pleasures and diversions of 
unregenerate humanity. Is not a considerable 
proportion of these such as cannot be loved and in- 
dulged in, without an amazing amount of de- 
pravity ? I need not go back to antiquity and tell 
of "the brutal entertainments," so greedily sought 
after, so highly enjoyed, and so firmly establish- 
ed under the sanctions of law, in Greece and 
Rome, and other heathen countries. I need not 
tell of the public games in which naked men con- 
tended for superiority in feats of agility and 
strength ; of the gladiatorial shows, in which men, 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 85 

trained for the purpose, butchered each other for 
the amusement of their fellow-men ; and of the 
exposure of human beings to the fury of wild 
beasts, while thousands enjoyed the sport of seeing 
them torn asunder, as a mere entertainment ; ay, 
and of some other things of which it is "a shame 
even to speak." We would just ask you, what 
are some of the prominent, favourite pleasures of 
modern times ? What is their character ? The 
sports of the turf, the gaming-table, the theatre, 
the places of resort consecrated to lechery and 
ebriety — need I describe them? There are pleas- 
ures and diversions of a less low and foul kind 
than these — pleasures held in reputation by the 
multitude — but which, on the part of those who 
indulge in them, show a heart alienated from the 
living God, and deeply in love with sin. Must 
not that heart be awfully wicked that can take no 
pleasure in serving God ? — that draws its chief 
or only pleasure from iniquitous or worldly 
sources? 

The gains of men : what is the character of 
much of them ? Who that has much to do with 
his fellows, is not liable frequently to be imposed 
upon or wronged ? On many tongues what is el good 
bargain, but a dishonest or fraudulent one ? How 
much unbecoming and blameable effort, amongst 
large numbers, to empty the contents of others 
pockets into their own ? Who feels that his pro- 



CD THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

perty is safe, unless it be under bar or lock ? How 
difficult oft times is it to determine whom one may 
safely trust. Even human life, how unsafe is it. 
For how small a temptation, frequently, does the 
murderous weapon find its way to a brother's 
heart! How numerous and shocking crimes are 
perpetrated ! Our laws, our courts of justice, our 
jails and prisons, tell a hard tale about the human 
heart. 

But, reader, as much as the human heart shows 
of wickedness by the streams it sends forth, yet 
how incomparably more wicked is it in the eye of 
God, than it ever appears to ourselves to be. How 
much adultery, murder, and theft, for instance, are 
committed by the hearty that are never committed 
in action. How many more deeds of cruelty, vil- 
lainy, and lewdness, do human beings wish, than 
they dare, to perpetrate. What an astonishingly 
great criminal is every man, woman, and child in 
heart, even where the life appears decent and re- 
spectable. Who would be willing to have all his 
thoughts of one day laid open to the gaze of the 
world ? Who would not fear that his reputation 
for humanity, purity, honesty, might be stained or 
tumbled into the ditch, by such a disclosure? 
Many things operate to prevent men from acting 
out but a very small part of the wickedness that is 
in their hearts. Human laws and penalties do 
much toward restraining men. No one can tell 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 87 

how much more rampant vice and crime would be, 
were it not for these. The operations of con- 
science, the influence of instruction, a regard to re- 
putation, impose such restraints that we little im- 
agine what mankind would be without them. 
And there is, above all, God's restraining grace — 
how thankful should men be for it. How much, 
by means of it, are they withheld from doing, 
which, at one time and another, it is in their heart 
to do. Whenever the pious Bunyan saw a crim- 
inal borne on the way to Tyburn, he exclaimed, 
4i There goes John Bunyan, but for the grace of 
God." 

Only a little change in one's circumstances, 
bringing along with it some fresh temptation, not 
unfrequently reveals to a person some form of wick- 
edness which was previously undiscovered, and 
that he till then did not in the least suspect to have 
a place in his heart. When Hazael, an officer at 
the court of Syria, was told by Elisha what evils 
and barbarities would be perpetrated by him, after 
he should come to the throne, he is reported to 
have exclaimed, " But what ! is thy servant a 
dog, that he should do this great thing?" Yet 
Hazael afterwards did those very things. This 
man knew not what was in his heart till, by a 
change of circumstances, it was evolved. The 
emperor Nero appeared very humane at the com- 
mencement of his reign. When he was desired 



88 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

to sign his name to a list of malefactors that were 
to be executed, he exclaimed, " I wish to heaven 
I could not write." Yet this was the man who 
afterwards assassinated his mother ; set fire to 
Rome, destroying thereby multitudes of men, wo- 
men, and children, and then charged it on the 
christians ; and otherwise showed himself a mon- 
ster in cruelty and iniquity. The truth when 
spoken is, that all mankind are naturally mon- 
sters of depravity and wickedness in their hearts, 
how fair soever with many of them may appear 
the exterior. In its unrenewed state, and all re- 
straint thrown off, the human heart may be indeed 
said to be capable of every kind or degree of im- 
piety, iniquity, enmity, cruelty, which was ever 
committed, or can be conceived. 

From what has been said, reader, you may 
learn — 

1st. How little reason mankind have to boast of 
the goodness of their hearts. It is not uncommon 
to hear it said of this or that profligate or notori- 
ously wicked man, that he has " a good heart" — 
meaning to have us understand by it, that, how bad 
soever his conduct is, his heart is not bad. Now 
his heart is far, far the worst part of him. As bad 
as the worst man in the world is in his conduct, 
he is inexpressibly worse in his heart than his con- 
duct shows him to be. There are deep recesses of 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 89 

wickedness within, that have never yet been so 
thrown open as to meet the eye of mortals. 

2dly. If your heart is desperately wicked, un- 
converted reader, and that it is you cannot well 
deny, after what you have read in this chapter — 
then are you desperately wicked, yourself, since a 
man is really what he is in his heart. I wish you 
to settle it in your mind, impenitent friend, that 
you are a desperately wicked creature. Carry 
this impression about with you wherever you go. 
Whether you be in the field, or by the wayside — 
whether you are in your bed at night, or are en- 
gaged in the business of the day — wheresoever you 
at any hour are — think what an exceedingly 
wicked heart you have, and so how very wicked 
you are. 

3dly. Is the state of your heart such as we have 
attempted to prove the heart of unconverted man 
to be ? Then watch it narrowly, and guard against 
what will excite and bring out its corruptions. 
Throw not yourself needlessly into circumstances 
of temptation, lest you be overcome, or led to do 
what may throw clouds and darkness over your 
prospects, and imbitter the rest of your days. 
You carry tinder, ay, something still more inflam- 
mable, even powder about you. Keep at a dis- 
tance from the fire — put yourself where the sparks 
cannot reach you, else you may receive a wound 
which neither time nor skill can cure. Let no one 
8* 



90 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

hold a parley with temptation. Considering what 
his heart is, " let him who thinketh he standeth 
take heed lest he fall." Let him not have a high 
idea of his own safety. 

4thly. If your heart is desperately wicked, then 
how little reason, dear reader, have you to be proud 
of yourself. A high opinion of one's self illy be- 
comes one who has such a heart. Instead of hav- 
ing an exalted conceit of yourself, oh, what an 
humble mind, what a lowly, broken, contrite spirit 
should you have. How should you loathe your- 
self, and repent in dust and ashes. 

5thly. If you have a heart desperately wicked, 
then how great a change do you need to experi- 
ence before you can be qualified to enter into 
heaven. Infinitely holy is God ; the society of 
heaven is perfectly holy ; nothing impure, unholy, 
can ever be admitted there. You then must meet 
with a wonderful transformation ; great things 
must be done for you ; a new, clean heart you 
must have, before you can take your stand 
with the holy worshippers in heaven's temple. 

Lastly. To effect such a change as you need, 
how requisite, how indispensable, are the influences 
of the. gracious Spirit of God. Your heart is so 
exceedingly wicked that you cannot wash away 
all its filthiness, even if you would ; and so wicked 
that you will not have the disposition to exert 
yourself enough for its removal, even, if you had 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 91 

the ability. Divine power and grace must operate, 
or you are for ever undone. Pray then earnestly, 
dear reader, and pray much, for the Holy Spirit's 
influences — for renovating and sanctifying grace. 
And begin now. 

PRAYER. 

O God, convince me more deeply, thoroughly, 
than reasoning can, that the heart which I have is 
desperately wicked. Grant me such a sight of its 
filthiness as shall constrain me to utter the cry of 
the leper, " Unclean, unclean." May I be much 
troubled for having such a heart, and be over- 
whelmed with astonishment that notwithstanding 
the polluted streams it has so long sent forth, I 
have not ere now been driven to the abode of un- 
clean spirits in the nether world. " Purge me 
with hyssop and I shall be clean ; wash me and I 
shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean 
heart, O God ; and renew a right spirit within 
me." Take away, I beseech thee, not only my 
guilt, but also my pollution, that after the termina- 
tion of this short life I may ascend to dwell for- 
ever with the holy. All this grant through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 



92 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE SINNER'S SELF-IGNORANCE. 

" Know thyself," was a precept held in great 
veneration by the ancients. Though Thales, the 
Miletian, was the author of it } yet it was by them 
regarded as having in it too great weight of sense 
and wisdom to be human in its origin. They 
would have it that it had come from Apollo, and 
so had it written in golden capitals over the door 
of his temple at Delphos. The precept is indeed 
divine. The ancient heathen conjectured that it 
came down from heaven ; we know it did. In va- 
rious parts of the sacred oracles is it in substance 
to be found. Clemens Alexandrinus maintained 
that Moses, by that phrase so frequent in his wri- 
tings, " Take heed to thyself," means the same 
thing as did the ancients, by the precept above. 
That precept the wise men among the heathen did 
not prize too highly. It is excellent, it is impor- 
tant, truly. A knowledge of one's self cannot be 
too highly estimated. This precept, viewed com- 
prehensively, embraces a knowledge of one's cor- 
poreal, intellectual, and moral being and condition. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. *» 93 

There is, among mankind, a great want of self-ac- 
quaintance as to each of these parts of them. 
Most men know next to nothing about their own 
body, that house they live in ; whilst, of their 
mind, they are, if possible, still more ignorant. 
Leaving, however, to the physiologist and the met- 
aphysician what belongs properly to their depart- 
ments, permit me, reader, to offer you some thoughts 
concerning a knowledge of your character and 
state as a moral being. 

Should I say that you are a fallen creature, a 
sinner, I would, by that declaration, afford you no 
information — would introduce into your mind no 
new idea. But should I assert that you are a 
great sinner, perhaps you would not consider me 
as asserting the truth. I presume you do not be- 
lieve that you are such. If I should hear you 
speak out on this subject, I would probably hear 
you say, " I am not a great sinner — am far from 
it — have much in my character that is commend- 
able, that I have no reason to be ashamed of." 
How much farther you would proceed in the way 
of self-commendation, if you should declare your 
whole mind concerning yourself, I cannot say — 
but probably you would not stop short of several 
degrees. Dear unconverted friend, how can I keep 
from charging you with great self-ignorance? 

There are three short portions of scripture 
which are here suggested to my mind. One is : 



94 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

" The Pharisee stood, and prayed thus with himself, 
God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, 
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this pub- 
lican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of 
all that I possess." (Luke xviii. 11, 12.) Another 
is : " Thou say'st, I am rich, and increased with 
goods, and have need of nothing; and knovvest 
not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, 
and blind, and naked." (Rev. iii. 17.) The third 
is : " Who can understand his errors 1 cleanse thou 
me from secret faults." (Ps. xix. 12.) Just read 
these passages over again, and still a third time. 
I would recommend to you to open the holy Bible, 
and turn to and read them there. I may make 
some allusion to them in the course of my remarks 
in this chapter. 

Does it not appear, from these passages, that 
poor, fallen creatures, may be very ignorant of 
themselves — may think themselves one thing when 
they are another — may not know what sinners 
they are ? 

As it is not uncommon to meet with those who 
imagine themselves to possess a symmetry of figure, 
or a beauty of personal exterior, which does not 
belong to them ; and as we may, almost every 
where, come across men who vainly think them- 
selves to have an amount of intellectual energy and 
attainment which they certainly have not ; so is it 
not a rare occurrence to find, among the creatures 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 95 

of our species, those who in imagination invest 
themselves with moral qualities, excellences, which 
are quite foreign from them. How observably 
was this the case with the Pharisee whose prayer, 
{prayer shall I call it?) you have just been read- 
ing. What a remarkable degree of moral excel- 
lence did he clothe himself with, in his own 
fancy. And those Laodiceans thought their state a 
charming one, just the opposite of what it really 
was. *And you observe that the pious king of 
Israel, whom you can hardly suspect of being un- 
charitable, had the idea that, to say the least, most 
men were very self-ignorant. u . Who," said he, 
* can understand his errors ?" Here are two 
things intimated. One is, that the errors of man- 
kind are such, both as to number and quality or 
degree, that it is not common to meet with those 
who understand them. Such a thing is so unusual, 
that, as if almost despairing of discovering any one 
who possessed so much knowledge of himself and 
his actions, the Psalmist exclaims, " Who" — " who 
can understand his errors ?" Where is an individ- 
ual to be found that does ? The other thing in- 
timated is, that it is a matter attended with difficulty 
for fallen creatures to attain to such an understand- 
ing. 

And he appears too to have been far from im- 
agining that he was fully acquainted with himself. 
Though he had been so taught of God, had been 



96 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

afforded so much of a discovery of his sinfulness, 
that he had repented in dust and ashes, yet he 
could not but entertain the suspicion that he him- 
self had sins or defects which had escaped his own 
observation ; that besides the errors he had already 
detected in himself, or remembered that he had 
committed, he could not but believe that there 
were other faults which he had fallen and w r as per- 
haps daily falling into, that had escaped his detec- 
tion. This suspicion on his part is evident from 
the petition offered up by him to God, " Cleanse 
thou me from secret faults." Secret faults ! How 
secret ? secret to whom ? Not to God. The man 
who penned the 139th Psalm did not need to be 
told that there is nothing secret or unknown to the 
Lord. Nor did king David mean, secret as to his 
fellow-man. This is evident not only from the 
character of the interrogation preceding the one in 
which the phrase " secret faults" is found, but from 
the contrast drawn between those faults and " pre- 
sumptuous sins," spoken of in the succeeding 
verse. Presumptuous sins are not alone those 
which are open. Murder, theft, and many other 
presumptuous sins are most commonly perpetrated 
in secret, not in the view of others. By " secret 
faults," then, the Psalmist must mean, faults secret 
to one's self, not known to or detected by the indi- 
vidual who commits or has them. There is a 
loose and very erroneous notion entertained by 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 97 

some, that no act is faulty or blameworthy, unless it 
be known by the individual to be wrong before he 
commits it. According to that idea, there could be 
by possibility no secret faults, in the sense just 
mentioned. Is then the true standard of right and 
wrong one's own notions ? Was Paul as innocent 
when he was engaged in persecuting Jesus of 
Nazareth or his followers, as free from fault, as he 
was when employed ardently in his cause ? He tells 
us that at the time he did it, he verily thought he 
ought so to do. Yet, was his conduct in this mat- 
ter not faulty? He lets us know that he after- 
wards thought it very faulty. He speaks of his 
having been a persecutor in terms of strong con- 
demnation. The truth is, he ought to have known 
better. Yes ; men may do many things which 
are faulty, may indulge in things not a few that 
are highly blameworthy, and yet not know, at the 
time, that they are so. As to themselves, they are 
faults which are secret. 

From what you have already read in this chap- 
ter, do you not see that a sinner may be very ig- 
norant of himself? may think himself to have 
moral excellences which he has not ? may be a 
very great sinner, and yet not know it? 

An amazing amount of self-ignorance prevails 
amongst all the unconverted and careless. Whence 
originates it, or to what is it to be attributed ? The 
9 



98 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

causes or reasons which might be assigned for it 
are various. We will specify some of them. 

1st. It is doubtless attributable in part to a want 
of acute moral sensibility. This want has led to 
inattention to the moral quality of their exercises 
and acts. The question has not been agitated by 
them sufficiently — Is it right to indulge this or 
that feeling, or do this or that thing ? The question 
with unconverted persons has, for the most part, 
rather been, how it would affect their worldy inter- 
est or pleasure. And when it has been decided 
that it would affect it favourably, they have at once 
set about the indulgence of the feeling, or the per- 
formance of the action. By not instituting an in- 
quiry into the character, in a moral respect, of the 
thing felt or done, many an evil thing has been in- 
dulged or run into, many a sin committed, that 
they never knew to be criminal. Now men's per- 
sonal character is according to the character of 
their feelings and their deeds. And, for the reason 
that we have mentioned, sinners, being ignorant 
very much of the character of the latter, are of 
course very ignorant of their own character. 

2nd. Another reason of the sinner's ignorance 
or erroneous opinion of himself is, his taking a 
wrong test, or selecting a false standard by which 
to try or form a judgment of himself. He com- 
pares himself with others. He makes other men 
whom he sees or hears of, the test or standard 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 99 

by which to form a judgment concerning himself. 
And in setting up others as a standard too, he is 
very apt to look at or think of those, more particu- 
larly, who have some prominent vices or defects 
attached to and forming blots on their character, in- 
stead of those possessing an unblemished reputa- 
tion, and real excellence of character. The Phar- 
isee whom you read of, did so. He said, " I thank 
thee that I am not as other men are." And when 
he thought of other men, take notice who they are 
on whom his mind fixed: — "extortioners, unjust, 
adulterers." Such were the men selected by 
which to try himself; — such the characters he 
chose to compare himself with, and by which to 
form a judgment of his own. In the light of such 
a comparison, his own character appeared tolerably 
fair. 

A similar thing does many a sinner do, now-a- 
days. He thinks of the drunkard, the awfully 
profane man, the notorious liar, the thief, the slan- 
derer, the sensualist, the extortioner, the defrauder, 
and oppressor, and if he has not one, or many, 
or all of the unseemly attributes or dark spots of 
character which these have, why, he thinks quite 
well of himself, and almost or quite wonders how 
any one can call him a sinner. He imagines he 
has whereof to boast ; and not before man merely, 
but also, as did the Pharisee, before God. An in- 
spired apostle alludes to this method as one which 



100 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

was taken by more or less in his day, by which to 
come to a conclusion as to what themselves were j 
and he does not appear to think at all well of it. 
u We dare not" — mark his strong language — " we 
dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare 
ourselves with some that commend themselves : 
but they, measuring themselves by themselves, and 
comparing themselves among themselves are not 
wise." (2 Cor. x: 12.) A very common standard 
which unconverted persons select by which to 
judge of themselves, is that assemblage of things 
which go to make up a good reputation, or fair 
name and character in cultivated society, or 
amongst the respectable of this world. Forming 
a judgment of themselves by such a standard, they 
may be able to find no blemish or next to none in 
their character, and are led to inquire as did the 
young ruler, though with much less reason, "What 
lack I yet ?" Should the person who reads this 
chapter, even select the truly pious with whom to 
compare himself, and be himself pious, he would 
have occasion to cry with David, " W T ho can un- 
derstand his errors ? Cleanse thou me from se- 
cret faults ;" and with Paul, u O wretched man 
that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of 
this death ?" 

But when he whose eyes run over these lines, 
selects merely the outwardly moral, who are unre- 
generate, and so have in their hearts not a particle 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 101 

of love to God, and, in their actions, do not a sin- 
gle thing to the glory of God, with whom to com- 
pare himself, and is himself in a state of impeni- 
tence, then how much reason has he " low in the 
dust to fall," and to cry, " God he merciful to me 
a sinner." 

3rd. Another cause of the sinner's great igno- 
rance of himself is, the partial or limited view he 
has of his duty — or, which is the same thing differ- 
ently expressed, a want of thorough acquaintance 
with the extent, strictness, and spirituality of the 
Divine Law. A man will be liable to consider 
himself as having done all that it was his duty to 
do, if he only looks at some things which belong 
to his duty, and leaves out of view other things. 
The Pharisee tells us that he fasted twice in the 
week, and that he gave tithes of all that he pos- 
sessed. This was all well enough so far as it 
went. The law of Moses required him to fast and 
to pay tithes. But the Pharisee spoke of these 
things as though they comprehended the whole of 
his duty, whereas they constituted but a very small 
part of it. It is not an impossible thing to find 
men now, who, because they do something to pro- 
mote good morals, and give something to benevo- 
lent institutions and religious objects, imagine they 
do all that duty requires. These things are proper 
and useful ; but it will not do to substitute so small 
9* 



102 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

a part of duty for the whole, or to attempt to make 
perfection out of imperfection. 

The great rule of duty which our Divine Law- 
giver and Sovereign has given us, and the only 
proper test or standard by which to try ourselves, 
our character, our actions, is the moral law con- 
tained in the ten commandments, and drawn out in 
detail in the various moral precepts of the sacred 
volume. If after having obtained a perfect under- 
standing of it, we will try and judge ourselves by 
this rule ; if we will bring ourselves, our state, our 
character, our thoughts, desires, affections, passions, 
volitions, words, and actions, in all their variety, 
and examine them by this broad, deep, spiritual 
law, this perfect standard, which has come to us 
from high heaven, we may then learn how God 
views us, and w r hat sort of opinion we ought to 
have of ourselves. 

But ah, we come now at a prominent as well as 
painful reason why so many sinners are so igno- 
rant of and consequently so well satisfied with 
themselves — why such multitudes of mankind are 
to be found who are, in heart, proud, vain, self- 
complacent, trusting in themselves that they are 
righteous, and therefore safe. 

Besides the extreme ignorance of the law of 
God which prevails amongst the unregenerate, 
and their great unwillingness to make it a subject 
of thought and study, some other things are true. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 103 

Some who belong to the class of the impenitent, 
will not take the moral law at all, either as a rule 
of duty, or as a standard by which to try them- 
selves, their internal exercises and their actions. 
Some are unwilling to take but a part — either the 
first table, prescribing those duties which we owe 
to God, and leaving out those duties which we owe 
to man ; or else, taking as their rule the second 
table, comprehending those duties which are owed 
to men, and passing by those which are owed to 
God. Some are averse to receiving or judging 
themselves by any but the prohibitory part of the 
decalogue, or that which forbids certain things to 
be done. Such of course overlook, as of no ac- 
count, their want of a compliance with the positive 
commands of the law : in other words, they seem 
not to imagine sins of omission to be sins at all. 
Others appear to have embraced the idea that if 
they do what is directly commanded, they may in- 
dulge, at least in a measure, in what God has in- 
terdicted. And there are multitudes to be found, 
who seem to have no idea of disobedience or sin 
lying in anything except overt action. Such of 
course leave out of view or make no account of 
sinful exercises of heart. Some in judging of 
themselves and their actions, overlook or disregard 
altogether the motives by which they are influenced; 
the aims and intentions by which they are gov- 
erned. They satisfy themselves with the mere 



104 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

form of obedience without the substance, the shell 
without the core. The young ruler, Saul of Tar- 
sus, before his conversion, and most of the Scribes 
and Pharisees, overlooked that kind of disobe- 
dience and wickedness which lay in sinful exer- 
cises of heart ; and disregarded the motive or in- 
tention with which things should be done in order 
to render them morally right, good, or acceptable 
to God. Outwardly they were righteous, but in- 
wardly were unsound, rotten. Besides ; the Phar- 
isees were very deficient in another respect. 
Whilst they were very punctilious as to minor 
matters, they were negligent or wanting as to those 
things that were vastly more important. Whilst 
they "paid tithes of mint, and annis, and cum- 
min," they omitted the weightier matters of the 
law, judgment, mercy, and faith: "these," says 
Christ, " ought ye to have done, and not to leave 
the other undone.' 7 

Thus we see, dear reader, how a human creature 
may deceive himself by not taking the law, the 
whole law of God, and in all its spirituality and 
extent, as his rule of duty, and standard by which 
to try himself, his character, his actions, in order to 
ascertain what sort of a creature he is, or what state 
he is in. 

Of the common morality which is current in 
the world it may be said, that " the bed is shorter 
than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 105 

covering narrower than that he can wrap himself 
in it" There is one great, prominent deficiency 
in it. There is no true love to God in its compo- 
sition. It wants this great, ascendant, controlling 
principle ; without which there is no genuine obe- 
dience rendered to any law of heaven ; and with- 
out which, along with a true faith in Christ, all 
else, so far as our future and eternal happiness is 
concerned, is but as sounding brass, or a tinkling 
cymbal. 

Even when a man, by comparing his inward ex- 
ercises and outward acts with the law of God, ar- 
rives at the conclusion that he has failed, and fail- 
ed very much, as to the keeping of that law, he 
may still continue to entertain a very erroneous 
opinion concerning himself, may think quite too 
favourably of his character or conduct, by not duly 
estimating the great sinfulness and demerit there is 
in moral evil ; by not taking into consideration the 
degree or magnitude of the evil that there is in 
sin. He may not see sin in general, nor his own 
sins in particular, to be " exceeding sinful.' ' He 
may imagine sin to be a trifling evil, a matter 
hardly worthy of account. Such, dear reader, is 
the tremendous turpitude and evil of sin, that I 
have no doubt but God would look upon a creature 
as a great sinner, who had transgressed his holy, 
just and good law in a single instance. The Lord 
was willing to affix the penalty of death everlast- 



106 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

ing to one transgression, which that holy and right- 
eous Being would not have been willing to do, if 
a single sinful act had not been, in his account, 
such a tremendous evil as to deserve such a pun- 
ishment. 

But have you, my impenitent friend, been guilty 
of only one act of sin, in your past life ? Could you 
reckon up the number, if they were all thrown in 
a heap before you 1 Your sins are innumerable. 
There is a great deal of ignorance among sinners 
concerning this point They have no idea how 
multitudinous their sins are. Take any command- 
ment of God, the fourth one of the decalogue, for 
instance : " Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it 
holy." Since the period when you began to know 
right from wrong, how many sabbaths have you 
lived through ? Now, every moment in every one 
of those sabbaths which was not kept holy, wit- 
nessed a fresh act of sin. But, if you are an un- 
converted sinner, you have not kept one of those 
moments holy. Your breaches of the fourth com- 
mandment then are as numerous as all the mo- 
ments in those sabbaths. In every moment of 
them all you have failed to obey God. In every 
one of those moments you have substantially said to 
God, " I will not remember the sabbath day to 
keep it holy." 

Unregenerate sinners render obedience to no 
command of the Lord. Nothing which they do is 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 107 

done out of love to the Lord, and where there is 
no love there is no obedience, in God's account. 
They do nothing which Jehovah commands be- 
cause he commands it. Count over the various com- 
mands of the Lord, contained in the Bible, which 
are still binding. You have committed afresh act 
of sin every moment in which you have failed to 
obey each of those precepts. By looking over the 
Scriptures you find that you are commanded to 
love the Lord with all your heart ; to believe in 
Jesus Christ ; to repent of your sins ; to deny 
yourself all ungodliness ; to put off the old man 
and put on the new. As many moments as you 
have lived, since you knew your duty, so many 
times have you violated each of these precepts. If 
what I have now said be so, are not the hairs of 
your head few in number compared with your 
sins ? And yet for any one of these sins you de- 
serve eternal death. Oh, what a guilty, hell-de- 
serving creature you are ! Is it not a wonder of 
wonders that God has borne with you so long ? 
— so long kept back from you his fiery wrath ? 

Though what has been already remarked under 
this head might be considered as substantially 
comprising it, yet it may not be useless directly to 
drop the observation here, that a poor blinded sin- 
ner mLy be very much in the dark respecting his 
character, by taking a too limited view of his 
responsibilities: a thing, to say the least, which is 



108 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

very frequently done. The human creature is re- 
sponsible for his time, his mental faculties and cor- 
poreal powers, his acquirements, his property, his 
example and influence, and his privileges or 
means of getting and of doing good. He is ac- 
countable to God for the use he makes of these. 
They may be used for God or against him — may 
be employed in a right or a wrong manner. Alas, 
what an untold amount of sin is the fallen, unre- 
generate creature guilty of, by an abuse or misim- 
provement of these, severally ! 

I will proceed to assign, briefly, two or three ad- 
ditional causes or reasons why a sinner is so ig- 
norant of his sinfulness; or why he has so many 
faults which are secret, sins w r hich are unknown, 
to himself. 

4th. Habit— what is the effect of habit ? Why 
this is one common and obvious effect of it : to 
render us almost or quite unobservant of what is 
done under its influence. A thing is done without 
much thought or attention that is done from habit. 
A new thing is done through an effort of the mind 
and will. Not so with a thing that is habitual. It 
is done almost, as it w r ere, without thought or vo- 
lition. Through habit, a man may do many a 
thing that is wrong, and yet he take no notice of 
it ; or remember not the next moment that he has 
done it. The profane swearer utters many an 
oath, pours forth from his lips many an impreca- 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 109 

tion which offends God, and shocks the sensibil- 
ities of the pious, that he himself is, at the time, 
hardly conscious of, or at least knows not the next 
moment. Besides ; men are not generally found 
inclined to examine into the right or the ivrong of 
what is done habitually. One of the effects of 
habit is to lull or stupify the conscience — to cast 
her into a sleep more or less deep. The morphine 
administered by habit operates so powerfully upon 
her, that many a fault escapes her notice — she de- 
tects it not. If she were awake, she would thun- 
der j she would smite or reprove him ; she would 
so hold up the criminal thing before his mind ; by 
scourging would so turn his attention to it, that he 
should both see and remember what he had done, 
and see and remember it as a fault. 

5th. Custom , likewise, has a wonderful effect in 
blinding one's mind, and rendering him ignorant 
or insensible as to the character of much he does. 
Many look to no better a source than custom, the 
customs of society, the customs which prevail 
about them, in the making up of their opinion as 
to things right or wrong. To such, a thing ap- 
pears right which is customary, or wrong which is 
not customary. There appears Yery little of a dis- 
position among many people to inquire into the 
right or the wrong of custom. That which they 
have seen prevailing around them from their ear- 
liest years, they are apt to take for granted to be 
10 



110 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

right ; and are, on the other hand, apt to take for 
granted, of course, that that which interferes with 
what they have been accustomed to seeing prevail, 
and which looks toward a breaking up of the cus- 
tom, or a putting of it down, is all wrong. Hence 
to some extent, at least, it is, that reformers so often 
fare so poorly. 

6th. Still another cause or reason which I shall 
mention is, inordinate self-love, or self-partiality. 
A creature may be so fond of himself, and so par- 
tial to his own actions, as very much to blind him 
as to their true nature. A thing done by another 
person frequently wears quite a different aspect 
from what the same thing does when done by 
one's self. That, for example, which is avarice or 
covetousness in others, is only prudence in one's 
self. That which appears like extravagance 
when seen in others, is only a matter of decency 
when beloved self is the actor. Parsimony in 
others, is with one's self nothing more than econ- 
omy oftentimes. That which may appear like 
criminal levity in others, may, when indulged in 
by one's self, seem nothing more or less than in- 
nocent cheerfulness. And so with a hundred other 
things. 

7th. The last thing which I will specify is, a 
want of remembrance. A man is at present igno- 
rant of things which he once knew, but does not 
now remember. A large number, probably a very 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. Ill 

large majority, of the exercises or acts which the 
sinner's conscience told him, at the time of their 
birth, were sinful, have wholly faded from his me- 
mory. He recollects them not. Though on the 
day of judgment and in eternity they will not be, 
yet now are they, to him, as if they had never 
been. The sinning creature remembers but com- 
paratively few of his once known sins. Yet God 
has not forgotten them ; and he will not suffer the 
perpetrator's memory always to be what it now is. 
All of his sins will, ere long, if he repents not, 
stare him in the face, yes, and will each brandish 
before him a fearful weapon too, or add fuel to the 
fire into which he will be cast. 

Through the combined operation of the several 
causes now specified, sinners commonly know next 
to nothing about their character — are extremely ig- 
norant as to what they truly are. You have heard, 
I presume, of poor deranged persons who enter- 
tained the idea that they were princes ; or the pos- 
sessors of vast wealth. Yet such opinion was per- 
haps no more absurd than that which prevails very 
generally among unawakened sinners, respecting 
their character and standing before God. How 
important is it that they should be undeceived — 
that they should become acquainted with them- 
selves. It may be apprehended of the less gross 
and abominable sort of them, especially, that they 
will more or less cherish the spirit of self-compla- 



112 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS. 

cency; will pride themselves in their imagined 
goodness ; will swell with fond conceit of their 
moral excellence, until in some way, error is made 
to give place to truth, in this matter. 

Impenitent reader, I cannot but recommend to 
you to take into consideration those causes of self- 
ignorance which have been specified in this chap- 
ter ; and to adopt the course requisite to have that 
ignorance removed. Let me exhort you to seek ? 
at the proper source, for the awakening in your 
soul of an acute moral sensibility. Endeavour 
also to form a thorough acquaintance with the 
length, breadth, depth, and height of the exactions 
of the holy law r of God, and the whole range of 
your responsibilities. Seek moreover to have your 
moral judgment delivered from the blinding influ- 
ence of habit, and custom, and self-partiality ; and 
strive to have called up to your recollection, as 
much as possible, the sins which you once knew 
to be such, but have forgotton. You may thus 
find course for being deeply troubled, instead of ly- 
ing in the arms of ease, or reposing on the couch of 
slumber. You may thus find cause to smite on 
your breast, as did the publican, and to cry with 
Bartimeus, " Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy 
on me." 

G, my unconverted friend, you have been very 
careless ; very much at ease ; have been very inap- 
prehensive of danger. And why ? Not because 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 113 

you had any good reason to think your state safe, 
or yourself a favourite of Heaven ; but because you 
were so ignorant of yourself; so unacquainted 
with your true character ; knew so little about the 
number and sinfulness of your sins. Alas, what a 
sinner you are ! How much jtou need to shake 
off stupor ; how much to become acquainted with 
yourself, your sins, your state. How troubled 
should you be ; how anxious to escape the just 
and awful punishment which is your due. If 
there is a possibility of finding pardon for your 
deep-dyed and innumerable offences, seek earnestly 
for it, until you have evidence that it is granted. 
If there is a powerful and merciful arm that is 
long enough to reach even to you, pray that it 
may without delay be extended, and you laid hold 
of and kept from sinking into endless despair and 
torment. Can it be possible that you will still 
close your eyes, and refuse to search out your ini- 
quities 1 How much better to become acquainted 
with your sins now, and see to getting their sting 
extracted, than to form an acquaintance with them 
where there will be no extracting power at hand, 
and where each of the innumerable throng will 
be a busy scorpion upon you. 
10* 



114 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE ABOMINABLE THING. 

Employing a few moments, this afternoon, in 
the perusal of a chapter in the Old Testament, my 
mind was struck with the Lord's prayer, which I 
there met with. e What I' I think I hear you say, 
1 the Lord's prayer in the Old Testament ? I thought 
it was in the New.' You are thinking, reader, of 
a prayer which usually goes under that name — a 
prayer which the Lord taught his disciples. That 
is a prayer designed to be offered by the creature to 
God. But the prayer I met with is offered by the 
Lord to the creature. ' What !' you exclaim again, 
J God pray, and pray to the creature ?' So it seems. 
{ And what is the prayer V It is this : " Oh, do not 
this abominable thing that I hate." I was moved, 
as you may well conceive I had reason to be, at the 
thought of the Creator offering supplication to the 
creature ! — of the Infinite God coming and kneel- 
ing down, as it were, before a poor worm of the 
dust, and presenting such an humble and warm 
petition ! Should you hear an earthly father using 
such language of tenderness and earnest entreaty to 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 115 

a disobedient and erring son — should you hear a 
parent beseeching his child to desist from an act or 
course which was highly painful and displeasing 
to him — would you not be affected ? Whilst the 
pathetic tones of the parent's voice were falling on 
your ear, would you not be apt to be moved even to 
tears ? 

You might well wonder, then, if I could hear 
the Almighty Father, him who gave existence to 
angels and men, addressing a portion of his crea- 
tures, yourself among the number, and saying to 
them, " Oh, do not this abominable thing that I 
hate !" and yet remain unmoved. To see the great 
God placing himself before men in the attitude of a 
supplicant, and to hear him beseeching them to do 
one thing, or not to do another, ought certainly to 
be deeply affecting to us ; ought to cause our bosom 
to heave with emotion, and our cheek to be suffused 
with tears. 

In words such as you find in that petition, Jeho- 
vah frequently addressed the Jews, before he sent 
the king of Babylon against them. Prior to his 
destroying Jerusalem, depopulating their land, and 
causing the inhabitants, for the most part, to be 
carried into captivity beyond the Euphrates, we are 
told that he " sent unto them all his servants the 
prophets, rising early and sending them," and 
through their instrumentality, he besought that 
untractable, disobedient, and covenant-breaking 



116 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

people, to desist from idolatry, and other grievous 
sins into which they had fallen. It is the sin of 
idolatry, I suppose, that is more particularly alluded 
to in that petition ; yet what is there said is true of 
every species or form of iniquity. Of sin in general 
it may be said, that it is a very hateful, abominable 
thing in God's sight. 

If to him whose eyes are now running over these 
lines, sin were likewise an abominable thing — if 
you, reader, had a lively and deep impression of its 
evil and detestable nature, greatly hated it, and had 
a head that was waters, and eyes which were 
fountains of tears because you had meddled with it, 
you might then pass at once to the next chapter, or 
even close the book. But I have had occasion to 
know how an impenitent sinner thinks and feels 
respecting sin, or rather how barren his mind is 
of thought respecting its nature, and how his 
heart, instead of holding it in detestation, loves the 
execrable, accursed thing. I am sorry to be obliged 
to say that sin is with you a light offence, a trivial 
evil. It is so with every one in a state of impeni- 
tence. And I cannot expect your state, and it is an 
awful one, to be ever any better than it now is, unless 
sin becomes to yourself the sort of thing which is 
intimated at the head of this chapter. I wish, there- 
fore, to make some attempt to convince you that sin 
is so great and detestable an evil, that they must be 
fools who make light of it, and mad who do not 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 117 

hate and turn from it. The Lord has a right view 
of, and right feelings towards every thing. If sin 
is hateful to God, and not merely this, but " the 
abominable thing which he hates]' language import- 
ing that there is nothing else in the universe which 
he does hate, and that it he hates intensely, then 
you need to know it, and your heart to feel it. 

That sin is what this language imports, we pro- 
ceed to show. I. We remark, in the first place, 
that this is inferrible from the holiness of God. To 
many of the gods of the heathen, not excepting 
Jupiter himself, are attributed the most low and 
base vices. They are represented sometimes as 
yielding to excessive anger, and engaged in despe- 
rate quarrels ; sometimes as burning with lust ; 
sometimes as corroded by envy or jealousy, and 
laying plans to defeat each other's purposes ; and 
even the best of them are exhibited with failings 
which may well lead us to wonder that they should 
have ever been worshipped, or even tolerated. 
Wherever idolatry has prevailed, the objects of 
worship have always been, in a greater or less 
degree, sensual or sanguinary ; and the rites with 
which they have been worshipped, have been 
adapted to their character ; rites which have caused 
the altars to smoke with human blood, or which 
have caused purity, even decency, to retire and 
weep. 

But our God is no such one. He is a Being of 



118 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

infinite purity. Holiness is an essential attribute 
of his nature, and is dwelt much upon in our sacred 
Book. " Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the 
praises of Israel. Worship at his footstool, for he 
is holy. These things saith he that is holy. God 
that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. 
Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy 
name ! for thou only art holy ?" God is said to be 
"glorious in holiness." 

Now God is highly pleased with this feature of 
his character. He regards his own holiness with 
infinite complacence. But sin is the direct opposite 
of holiness. It must then be the object of his ab- 
horrence. And this sentiment is expressed too in 
scripture, and not only directly, but in very strong 
language. " Thou art of purer eyes than to behold 
evil, and canst not look on iniquity." (Hab. i. 13.) 
Between his nature and sin there is an infinite re- 
pugnance. " Canst not look on iniquity." It is 
not here said, he will not, but cannot. It is not 
said he cannot look on iniquity without loathing it, 
or having his heart rise against it, but cannot look 
on it at all, so exceedingly hateful, offensive, is it 
to him. 

Let a human creature become but imperfectly 
holy, and that creature greatly hates sin. So 
soon as the soul is regenerated, it becomes inimi- 
cal to sin ; and as the work of sanctification pro- 
gresses, and in the same proportion, is there an 



FOR THE IMPExMTENT. 119 

increase in his detestation of iniquity. What a 
hatred, then, must be borne to sin, by not only a 
perfectly but an infinitely holy Being. 

2. From the effect which sin has had on the 
feelings and conduct of man in relation to God, an 
argument is derivable, that it is a very abominable 
thing in his sight. What has sin done with man's 
affections? Turned them away from God. He com- 
mands mankind to love him supremely, with all the 
heart. But where sin has possession, God is not loved 
in the least measure. But this is not all. Sin has 
had the effect of causing man to hate God. It has 
caused you to hate him, reader. Fallen angels 
and fallen men hate God. This is not a matter of 
mere conjecture. Actions have a tongue, and these 
testify that this is true. God knows it is so, and 
has let us know that he knows it. Now, inasmuch 
as Jehovah knows himself to be infinitely worthy 
of their love, and has commanded them to love him, 
thus giving expression to his desire on the subject, 
that cannot but be exceedingly hateful, abominable 
to him, that has stolen love from their hearts, and 
put enmity in its room. 

He has expressed it as his wish that men should 
spend their life and employ their powers, mental 
and corporeal, in his service, to his glory. But sin. 
does not let them do this. Unregenerate men, 
instead of seeking to please God in every thing, 
seek to please him in nothing. Instead of doing 



120 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

every thing to his glory, they do naught to his 
glory. What a robber is sin ! It robs God not 
alone of the love, but of the entire service of your- 
self, and of every other sinner. Another master is 
served by them, and a very different one from the 
Lord Almighty. The greater part of mankind are 
doing just the contrary of what God would have 
them do. See what a subtraction sin makes from 
the amount of glory and service due unto God. 
And can you imagine that the Deity can witness 
such a subtraction without being much displeased 
with the subtracter? behold himself thus robbed, and 
not detest the robber 1 Can sin take so much of what 
of right belongs to the Lord, and give it to Satan, 
his great adversary, and yet not be exceedingly 
abominable ? There is no other robber in the uni- 
verse but sin ; and it is bold, audacious enough to 
rob the Sovereign of the universe. And then to rob 
him of so much too ! Where are words to express 
its execrable n ess? 

The Lord, moreover, has expressed it as his desire 
and will that mankind should love one another ; 
should regard themselves as children of one Father, 
and be bound together in the bonds of amity and 
brotherhood ; — that they should respect and promote 
the interest of each other, instead of looking every 
man exclusively on his own things, or being swayed 
by supreme selfishness. But mankind do not feel 
nor act after this manner toward one another — nor 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 121 

is God a stranger to the fact. He sees that the 
human species are not, for the most part, very friendly 
to each other, and get along not very smoothly to- 
gether. He sees them oft caring each for himself 
exclusively. He looks into their inner man, and 
beholds envy, malice, ambition, and other evil and 
pernicious passions rankling there, and observes 
them not unfrequently belching out their desolating 
lava, and sometimes spreading it far and wide, 
causing mischief and havoc which years cannot 
repair. He knows what is the originating cause or 
prime author of all this evil. He lays the charge 
at sin's door. And does he regard sin, then, with 
as much indifference as you do % Ah, ? the abomi- 
nable thing, 7 ' how he abhors it! 

3. That sin is exceedingly detestable and abhor- 
rent to God, may be argued from certain memorable 
events recorded in sacred history ; events partaking 
of the character of Divine judgments. 

Of events of this sort I will refer you, first, to 
one w T hich occurred to a portion of a higher race. 
The infinite Creator had brought into existence a 
highly intellectual, exalted, and numerous species 
of creatures, all spirit, to w r hom he had granted the 
high privilege of residing from the beginning in the 
best, most magnificent, and glorious world that eyes 
ever saw. In the immediate presence of the God 
of glory they were located, and were permitted to 
see, hear, and feel, what caused their hearts to burn 
11 



122 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

with rapture uninterruptedly. But ere long-, their 
ranks are broken. Look over the sunny hills and 
through the enchanting vales of their native coun- 
try, and only a part of the race are to he found. 
Where are the rest? Search every spot in the 
wide domains of the world celestial — no trace of 
them is discoverable. We inquire and learn that 
they have been banished — that the omnipotent Je- 
hovah, lifting his strong arm, and seizing his thun- 
derbolts, drove them out of heaven, that world of 
unutterable glory, purity, bliss — that he drove them 
far, far from his presence, and made them exceed- 
ingly miserable. And they have been exceedingly 
miserable ever since. For the space of six thou- 
sand years past, I cannot express to you what un- 
happy wretches they have been ; and they have by 
no means come to an end of their unhappiness. 

Now why did Jehovah thus treat them'? They 
were his own creatures, and he once loved them very 
dearly. Ah, they fell into sin ; that was the cause. 
But for this, they would not only be now in heaven 
but would have been there all the long period that 
they have been suffering banishment ; and as happy 
the while, and still, as any of the seraphs that are 
there. Behold what sin can cause God to do. He 
is infinitely good ; and he infinitely delights in 
making his creatures happy. Yet see how he 
treated those angelic spirits that sinned, and because 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 123 

they sinned. The inference is unavoidable, that 
sin must be to him exceedingly abominable. 

Again. The Lord brought into being a human 
pair. These he placed, not indeed in heaven, but 
in Eden, a charming spot, the most so in the uni- 
verse, next to heaven ; and furnished them with all 
they could rationally desire. Besides what the 
garden itself afforded them, their infinite Maker 
himself visited them, and held communion with 
them as friend with friend. A little while after, 
look, and they are not there. Upon inquiry you 
learn that they have been expelled; forcibly driven 
out from Eden's bowers and precincts, into a wide, 
waste wilderness, every spot of which, wherever 
their foot treads or eye rests, lying under the scorch- 
ing, withering curse of Almighty God, and on their 
account. Why this? Infinitely benevolent is 
God, and these were the creatures of his own form- 
ing. The answer is short ; they had to do with 
sin. They meddled with the abominable thing 
which the Lord hates. Had they kept clear of it, 
they would have known no expulsion, their heart 
no pang, their eyes no tears. God would have 
continued to commune with them as at the first ; 
there would have been no interruption or end to 
their joys. 

Again : About sixteen and a half centuries after 
the creation, an amazing event took place. Verily 
it seemed as though the end of all things was at 



124 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

hand. For the space of forty days and nights, 
without cessation, the skies poured down water, and 
the liquid stores in earth's bowels took their station 
on its surface, and among human creatures, oh, 
what a work commenced of giving up the ghost. 
It seemed as though the whole human race would 
become extinct. And indeed well nigh this occur- 
red. After the waters of the deluge subsided, how 
many souls were found to repeople the globe ? Just 
eight. All the others had perished from off the 
face of the earth. And why perished they ? Why 
this submerging of the world, this depopulation 
of the earth ? Reader, you know. Though these 
multitudes were the creatures of God, they were 
stricken down, overwhelmed as in a moment, be- 
cause they had so much to do with sin, " the abomi- 
nable thing" which the Lord thus shows to us that 
he hates. 

About two hundred and fifty years after this, 
Abraham got up one morning, and looked toward 
the vale of Siddim, "and lo! the smoke of the 
country went up as the smoke of a furnace." In 
that vale, Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Ze- 
boim were situated. Those cities were in flames. 
As great as was their population, just four persons 
escaped. The conflagration, the flood of fire de- 
stroyed all the rest. And why this calamity ? Is 
it all a mystery? Is the cause entirely unknown? 
Ah, the Bible informs us that it was because of sin, 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 125 

that they were destroyed. Sin furnished the fuel, 
and lighted the fires. Had it not been for it y the 
Dead Sea would have had no place on the earth. 
Those were creatures which God's fingers had 
formed, yet see how his fiery wrath consumes them. 
In his sight what an abominable thing must sin be. 
The children of Israel were not few in number 
when they left the house of bondage. Yet how few 
of them entered the land of promise. Of that gene- 
ration which was delivered from the hand of their 
oppressors, what multitudes fell in the wilderness — 
never were permitted to see the goodly Canaan. 
Their sin provoked the Holy One of Israel, and he 
slew them. At one time he sent fiery serpents 
which bit them, and they died ; at another, he 
caused the earth to open her mouth, and swallow 
them up. From their subsequent history, whilst 
the land of Canaan was their abode, what evidence 
is to be gathered that Jehovah is a sin-hating God. 
How oft were they scourged for their rebellion 
and iniquities ; how frequently delivered into the 
hands of their enemies. What became of the ten 
tribes'? As to the other two, where spent they 
seventy years? What did the king of Babylon 
first, and afterward the Romans do to Jerusalem ; 
to their temple and altars ; and to their land ? And 
where have the Jews been, and how dealt with, for 
eighteen centuries past ? Yet these were once God's 
favourite, covenant people. 
11* 



126 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

And where are the seven nations which inhabited 
Canaan, before Joshua entered that land ? And 
where are Nineveh, and Babylon, and Tyre ? Who 
overthrew them, and why were they overthrown? 
Sacred history does not leave us to conjecture. 

4. Why are mankind, individually, and as a race, 
so much the subjects of sorrow and trouble? Why 
do so many sighs escape them ? Why are seen so 
many tears on their faces ? Why do anxiety and 
care so much corrode ? Why so many sightless 
eyeballs, deaf ears, maimed limbs, mute tongues'? 
Why so many agues to chill, and fevers to burn ? 
Oh, who can tell or conceive how much human 
wretchedness and misery are now on the earth! 
Does God reign here ? What meaneth this heat, 
then, of his great anger? Why did Adam die? 
Why the antediluvians? Why the hundred and 
forty generations of human beings since? They 
are gone. Look over the face of the earth, and you 
can find scarcely a creature who has been on it so 
much as a century ; nearly the whole of its inhab- 
itants much less. Why has this earth been con- 
verted into one vast grave-yard? Had sin not been 
nere, would death have been? The Lord turneth 
man to destruction, and saith, " Return, ye chil- 
dren of men ;" but this he would not do, if men had 
not meddled with what he greatly abhors. " In 
every death you see a criminal executed according 
to the sentence of the law." But there would be 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 127 

no such sentence, no such penalty, were not sin that 
abominable thing which God hates. 

But, reader, beyond this world, there are ills and 
sufferings, compared with which, both as to inten- 
sity and duration, those of earth are as nothing. 
Somewhere within the compass of measureless 
space, there is a place of torment to which the 
scriptures give the name of hell. I cannot describe, 
no, nor have any adequate idea concerning the 
misery which those endure, each moment, that are 
there. There is a tormenting worm which never 
dies ; there are fires which are never extinguished ; 
sighs and groans there which never cease. There 
already are multitudes of creatures '• who would 
but can't expire." You have read the descriptions 
which the Bible contains of that world of wo, de- 
spair, agony. And have you not sometimes en- 
deavoured to conceive of the poverty, wretchedness, 
torment, of those outcasts from happiness and hope ? 
Have you not let your mind, now and then, dwell 
on the subject for a considerable time? Alas! I 
fear you have not. It is not a matter, probably, 
that you like to think about. But I would like to 
have you frequently read over and meditate on those 
descriptions which the Lord has given, in the scrip- 
tures, of the world of woe, and what privations and 
miseries those souls are experiencing which have 
been driven thither ; and I desire that you would, 
in connection with your meditations on the extremi- 



128 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

ly of their distress and pain, try to think on the 
import of that word, eternity. I know that the 
misery of the wicked in hell, both as to degree and 
duration, stretches far beyond the reach of the 
human mind. It can be measured by nothing 
short of an infinite line. 

And why all that anguish ? Why was that place 
of torment ever prepared? that prison built? that 
pit dug? those fires kindled? Are creatures of 
God sent there forever to dwell ? Why ? That 
one word, sin, tells the whole cause. And how 
much sin must a creature heap up, in order to secure 
hell torments ? Must it rise mountam high ? Read- 
er, how many infractions of a law of the land does 
it take to forfeit liberty or life ? How many times 
did our first parents have to sin before they brought 
upon themselves expulsion and the curse ? And 
how much was included in that curse ? Ah, reader, 
can you not here find proof that sin is " exceeding 
sinful?" that God sees in it much demerit? that he 
regards it with intense, inconceivable abhorrence ? 

This earth has been " in pain as a woman that 
travaileth ;" has been sighing, weeping, groaning ? 
trembling in every joint, shaking in every limb, 
and had a severe heartache, for the space of sixty 
centuries ; and her agonies are not yet ended. 
And there is another world which has witnessed 
deeper sighs, and heavier groans, and bloodier tears; 
and waitings which cannot be uttered, for as long 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 129 

a period ; and those sighs will always sigh, and 
tears will ever weep and fall, and groans will end 
not. And who is the mother that bears all this 
progeny of both worlds ? Sin. And can she bring 
forth a progeny so exceedingly troublesome to God's 
own creatures of each world, and yet she who gives 
birth to them escape his utmost detestation ? 

5. Why came the only begotten Son of God to 
this earth, and wherefore formed he such an ac- 
quaintance with grief? Gethsemane and Calvary 
are spots which have witnessed extraordinary scenes. 
What a sacrifice was offered ! Those bitter pains 
were endured for whom? for what? Was it sin 
that nailed God's Beloved to the accursed tree? 
that pierced his side, broke his heart, killed him? 
What ! can the eternal Father see sin thus treating 
his infinitely dear Son, and yet not infinitely hate 
her ? Impossible. Or, when the holy and just God 
saw sin resting by imputation on Jesus Christ, could 
he not keep from smiting, piercing to the heart, 
causing infinite suffering to, that " man who was 
his Fellow," because he beheld it resting there ? O 
who can go and take a view of the cross, and of 
Calvary's crimsoned summit, and come away with- 
out the conviction that sin is u the abominable 
thing," the thing hated infinitely by the Lord ? 

It may be remarked that if God hates sin thus, 
when found only imputative!?/ on his Son, then may 
we expect to find him bearing an exceeding detes- 



130 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

tation toward it, wherever it exists actually. u If 
such things be done in a green tree, what shall be 
done in the dry?" Then if men or angels' nature 
or conduct be stained by it, it can be no otherwise 
to him than an object of intensest abhorrence. We 
dropped the remark near the beginning of this 
chapter, that the language " the abominable thing 
that God hates," appears to imply or import that 
there is nothing else in the universe which he does 
hate. Let me guard this assertion from miscon- 
struction. Sin never exists, cannot, in an abstract 
form. Wherever it is found, it inheres or stands 
connected with a moral agent. Now, nothing is 
hated by the Lord which has no sin connected with 
it ; and nothing is hated by him but because of the 
sin connected with it. God is not displeased w T ith 
the nature of man as man, but with the nature of 
man as sinful. It is said by the inspired Psalmist, 
that the Lord " hates all workers of iniquity." But 
it is only as " workers of iniquity," that he hates 
them. Let iniquity cease to be any part of their 
work, and his hatred to them will cease. We re- 
mark, in addition, that there is nothing in sin which 
the Lord does not hate. It is an unmixed, unmiti- 
gated evil. There is nothing at all in it that can 
abate God's detestation ; not the least grain of good- 
ness to incline him to look favourably on any part 
of it ; nor is there any thing merely negative in it 
to mitigate his abhorrence. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 131 

It may be inferred from God's intense hatred to 
sin. that he is not the author of it. He would in 
no way exercise his power or agency in bringing 
into existence a thing which is so much the object 
of his detestation! It is highly unreasonable to 
suppose such a thing. Nor is sin ever the object of 
God's command, but ever of his prohibition. He 
never inspires or excites to evil. " God cannot be 
tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man."' 
Let no one therefore charge his sins on God, as 
though he was in any way the author or allower 
of them. If a man has a sinful nature, sinful dis- 
positions, feelings, passions, the Lord gave them not 
to him. " God made man upright." 

As sin ever has been, so it ever will be, an ex- 
ceedingly hateful, abominable thing in Jehovah's 
sight. It will never become diminished in hate- 
fulness to him. Familiarity with the sight of it 
may alter its appearance to man, but will never 
render it any the less base or odious in God's view. 
The period will never come when the Lord will 
let any of the prisoners out of the nether pit, because 
he has ceased to hate sin; nor when he will ever 
lighten their torment, because of his regarding it 
with less abhorrence. None of the tenants of the 
dark prison ought to indulge any hope of escape or 
deliverance, nor of a mitigation of their wretched- 
ness, on that ground ; nor do or will they. 

Having thus considered what opinion God has 



132 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

of sin, and how he feels toward it, I would now ask 
the reader how he views and stands affected toward 
sin. Do you view it, my friend, as a great and 
abominable evil, and feel intense hatred to it? I do 
not inquire whether you have all that intenseness 
of abhorrence of it that Jehovah has. None but 
such a mind as is infinite, probably, is capable of 
understanding how great an evil sin is, or of feeling 
all that detestation toward it, which it is just or right 
to feel. But in proportion to your ability, do you 
view it, and feel in a like manner toward it as the 
Lord does? It must be acknowledged that God 
views it and feels toward it justly. He has no weak 
and unrighteous prejudice against it. If he thinks 
it a great evil, and regards it with intense abhor- 
rence, then it deserves to be so thought of or re- 
garded. Now, are you and the rest of mankind on 
right ground in your opinions and feelings in relation 
to this matter? Are you and they any where near 
it? Is there not a great, most lamentable want of 
a just hatred of sin in the world ? Surely God's 
rational creatures should hate what he hates. And 
if he greatly detests a thing, they should greatly 
detest it. 

I need not ask the unrepentant sinner whether 
he hates sin. Reader, if you have never turned 
from sin to God, what is the reason you have not? 
If you hated sin, you would, of course, turn from it. 
Men do not adhere, and closely, to what they hate. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 133 

If you did not even love sin, you would not act, 
live as you do. And can you roll as a sweet morsel 
under your tongue, what is so displeasing to your 
Maker? What a heart then you must have ; what 
a bad, wicked heart ! Such a heart obviously needs 
a change, a great change. If iniquity, in all its 
forms, is not an object of your abhorrence, then you 
greatly need to be seeking after a change of heart. 
Had you been seeking to please that infinite Being 
who made you, you would have been seeking, striv- 
ing, to renounce and avoid sin. But this you know 
you have not done. Instead of seeking to please the 
Holy One of Israel, you have, during your past life, 
been doing what is infinitely displeasing to him. 
The sin which you have accumulated is already as 
a great mountain in size. You have been adding 
sin to sin for years. In how innumerable instances 
have you done or indulged in that abominable thing 
which God hates. And do you approve of your 
course, and can you persist in it? Will you con- 
tinue to cherish in your heart, and practise in your 
life, what is so evil, and so detestable to the Lord ? 
Is it not a wonder that you have been spared, kept 
out of hell so long? Does not repentance, deep, 
thorough, become you ? Ought you not to mourn 
and weep over your past conduct, and turn from a 
course so abhorrent to a Being of infinite purity? 
How vain is it for you to expect to fare well here- 
after, with all your guilt uncancelled, all your sin un- 
12 



134 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

repented of, unpardoned, and unremoved ? Can you 
indulge the idea that you can get into heaven with 
that cleaving to you which Jehovah infinitely hates? 
Will the infinitely Holy One admit into his presence, 
and make forever happy, a creature steeped in ini- 
quity? No. Either part with sin, or give up all 
hope of heaven. Hell is the only proper place for 
you, if you live and die in sin. 

Sinner, God would rather have you part with sin. 
than punish you everlastingly for it. He has come 
to you many a time as a suppliant already. He has 
hy his word and his ministry come before you, re- 
peatedly, in your past life, and now, whilst you are 
reading these lines, he is before you, saying to you in 
a warm and tender manner, " Oh, do not this abomi- 
nable thing that I hate." He seems not to wish to 
be constrained to destroy you forever. Dear reader, 
will not the thought of the infinite God using the 
language of supplication before you, melt you to 
penitence, and move you to desist from sinning? 
He assumes that you ought to desist from sin, be- 
cause it is the abominable thing which he hates. 
He assumes that you are under obligation to please 
him, and assumes, moreover, the fact that you are 
not wholly ignorant of this your obligation. You 
would have to be entirely without the knowledge 
of his excellences, of the relations he stands in to 
you, and of his will, to be in entire ignorance of 
your obligations in this matter. But you have not 
been left in such utter ignorance. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 135 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE WICKED WITHOUT PEACE. 

On the subject expressed in the above title I have 
concluded to offer some remarks, because it is my 
desire to convince the impenitent reader of these 
pages, that he is a loser instead of gainer by retain- 
ing his place in the ranks of that great army of 
revolters and rebels, that are continuing to wage 
war against God. I wish to point out to him some 
of the disadvantages attendant on ungodliness, and 
thus try to persuade him, out of regard to his own 
interest, to persist no longer in waging a warfare 
which is so unprofitable^ as well as unnatural, un- 
reasonable, and wicked. 

The sentiment advanced in the title of this chap- 
ter is, dear reader, worthy of your attention. It is 
by no means a novel one. It was advanced more 
than twenty-five centuries ago. It is a sentiment 
which you need not hesitate about adopting, inas- 
much as it emanated from an unerring source. It 
came from a mind that cannot be deceived, and from 
lips which cannot lie. " There is no peace, saith 
my God, to the wicked." (Isa. lvii. 21.) 



136 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

It is worthy of remark, that what is here affirmed 
by the Lord is discriminating — is not said of the 
whole of the human race, but only of a certain por- 
tion of them. It is not asserted that there is no hope 
or happiness to any of the fallen descendants of 
Adam, although such a declaration would have in- 
cluded nothing but what would have been in accord- 
ance with strict justice ; for no one of the human 
family merits any happiness or peace either in time 
or eternity. And when a portion of our race is 
singled out, concerning whom a fearful declaration 
is made, take notice, reader, what class it is that is 
singled out, and how that portion is designated. 
Earthly distinctions, as to rank or station, are by the 
divine mind too trifling to be noticed. Circum- 
stances foreign from character, things extrinsic, 
which in the dialect of the creatures of earth throw 
men into various divisions or classes, these are over- 
looked by the great God. He seizes on a distinc- 
tion that is moral ; he lays hold on character — on 
the morality or immorality, the right or the wrong 
of it, and shapes his affirmation accordingly. Neither 
in the declaration to which we turned your attention, 
nor any where else in the sacred volume, do you 
find the Lord affirming that there is no peace to the 
prince, or no peace to the peasant — no peace to the 
rich, or to the poor ; to the high, or to the low ; to 
the healthy and prosperous, or to the sick and 
afflicted of our race. Matters extraneous or foreign 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 137 

from character, things merely extrinsic, do not mark 
the bounds within or beyond which peace or happi- 
ness is to be found. The Infinite One has, in his 
all-wise arrangements, not made our happiness to 
depend on things so superficial, or circumstances so 
trivial as these. You may find happiness sometimes 
in the vale of poverty, and sometimes also in the 
midst of affluence. Her seat is with some of the 
great and noble of the earth, and likewise, and more 
frequently, in the vale of obscurity, amongst those 
alike to fortune and to fame unknown. In the pal- 
ace and the hovel may be found either peace, or 
the absence of this heaven-born principle. Amongst 
those on whose countenance health blooms and 
smiles, you may discover her j and you may place 
yourself by the couch where disease has carried its 
pains and its ravages, and you may find her even 
there. As to the production or existence of happi- 
ness, much less depends on such circumstances than 
is commonly thought. God says of none but the 
wicked, that they are destitute of peace. " There is 
no peace to the wicked ." 

And who areghe wicked ? Search the scriptures, 
and you will observe this term appropriated to de- 
note the unconverted, unreconciled ; those in whom 
the spirit of rebellion remains unbroken ; all who 
are in their natural, unrenovated state, and so, en- 
tirely destitute of holiness. In the language of the 
scriptures, they are the wicked. In this large class, 
12* 



138 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

there is discoverable quite a difference as to degrees 
of practical wickedness. Some are sinners above 
others. Some, like Saul among the Benjamites, are 
taller by the head and shoulders than those about 
them. There are the front, the middle, and the 
rear ranks in the great army of rebellion. Some 
are more bold in sin, more hardened in iniquity, 
than are others. Still, wherever you find a human 
creature with an unconverted heart, or an unsub- 
dued, unreconciled spirit, there, according to the 
language of the sacred oracles, you will find a 
wicked person. 

Concerning all then, who are not born again, and 
so concerning all who have not the principle of holi- 
ness within, is the affirmation made by the Lord, 
that there is "no peace" to them. Wherever there 
is, in any heart, a destitution of holiness, there is a 
destitution of peace. Bear this in mind, reader, as 
the assertion of God, of Him who knows perfectly 
the state of every human heart. God looketh on 
the heart, and wherever, amongst our species, he sees 
a want of holiness, he likewise sees a want of happi- 
ness or peace. Plant yourself on \flhatever spot on 
this globe you please, among whatever people you 
please, and if there were furnished you an eye so 
piercing and discriminating, that you could look in 
on the spirits of men, and mark the true condition 
and the entire workings of the human heart, you 
would find, wherever an unconverted heart was the 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 139 

object of inspection, that there is no peace there. 
God, who is everywhere present, and who has an 
eye so piercing and discriminating as at one glance 
to penetrate and discover all that is in all hearts, has 
said that there is no peace to such ; and he always 
tells the truth. 

The assertion made in the passage which I quoted, 
I know, is a broad one. It covers a good deal of 
ground. It goes so far that I presume it will not 
in every mind meet with a ready assent to its truth. 
For it is not said, qualifiediy, that there is but a 
small amount or an inconsiderable "portion of peace 
to the w T icked — but u no peaceP Now I will venture 
to affirm that, of the impenitent, unregenerate part 
of this world's population, hardly one of a thousand 
will be ready at once to yield a hearty assent to the 
truth of what is declared in that passage, though it 
is the infinitely holy and veracious God who made 
the declaration. 

What bears some faint resemblance to peace, the 
wicked sometimes feel floating about their hearts. 
There is an insensibility, and an airy, empty animal 
feeling, which is sometimes looked upon as pos- 
sessing the character of peace. But the real chris- 
tian knows that there is a great difference between 
it and the heaven-born principle, peace — almost if 
not quite as much difference, as there is between 
light and darkness, or any other two opposites. 
The difference is so great, that whenever a human 



140 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

creature is brought to experience the new birth, he 
finds that he was always, up to that period, a stranger 
to true and solid peace. This I believe to be the 
universal impression of all the truly converted to 
God. That condition of soul which follows a sense 
of the divine favour through faith in Jesus Christ — 
that state of conscience which is the result of the 
sprinkling of the blood of the Lamb upon it, when 
guilt with all its fetters and its heavy load takes its 
flight — ah, this, this is worthy of the name of peace. 
Cast your eye, reader, on that passage again. 
You see that it is not said in it, that there shall be 
hereafter, no peace to the wicked. The future tense 
is not used, but the present: — " There is no peace 
to the wicked." At any period in time, as well as 
any period in eternity, that declaration may be made 
with truth. So long as a person is without holiness, 
or belongs to the class of the wicked, there is no 
peace to him. Look at the wicked at this moment, 
and you may say with verity, there is no peace to 
them. Travel onward twenty, fifty, a hundred, a 
thousand years, and at each of these periods, and' 
every point in them, you may make the same asser- 
tion with truth. Go not only from one hour to 
another in time, but from one age to another in 
eternity, and, at every step as you proceed in your 
journey in the tract of interminable being, you may 
cry in the ears of all the unwashed and unrecon- 
ciled, There is no peace to the wicked. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 141 

If we look at all narrowly into the condition of 
the wicked whilst they have this earth for their 
abode, we will find the declaration contained in that 
verse of scripture, verified in their case. 

The human soul, dear reader, whilst divorced 
from God, is in a truly pitiable condition. Thus 
divorced, it is and must be destitute of true, solid 
satisfaction. The affections of the human soul, when 
detached from God, when they go astray from him, 
abandon the only portion that can truly feed or 
satisfy them. Such powers as the immortal spirit 
of man has, feed on emptiness when they feed not 
on God as their portion. The body might as well 
attempt to sustain itself solely on wind, as the human 
soul to sustain and satisfy itself on created things. 
It may apply its mouth to them for years, and obtain 
no nourishment. It will go away starved from them 
all. Let the affections of any human creature come 
down from God, and attempt to feast themselves on 
the creature, and they will, most assuredly, meet 
with dissatisfaction and disappointment. 

"Ho! all ye hungry, starving souls, 
That feed upon the wind, 
And vainly strive with earthly toys, 
To fill an empty mind," — 

you are poorly, sillily employed indeed. O that the 
Spirit divine might convince all such of the mourn- 
ful mistake which they are committing. Such is 



142 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

the error of all the wicked. They seek to feed and 
satisfy the cravings of their souls elsewhere than on 
God, and they seek in vain. 

Terrene objects, moreover, present nothing sub- 
stantial, solid, for the heart of man to cling to. Let 
the tendrils of the human heart cease to cling around 
God, and that heart has nothing to keep it calm and 
quiet whilst traversing life's tempestuous, troubled 
ocean. Separated from the immutable God, the 
soul will find all beside mutable. The shifting wind 
or changing weather is but an emblem of the change- 
able nature of all things else beneath the skies. A 
house built on the sand has a stable foundation com- 
pared with that soul which builds its expectations 
of enjoyment on terrestrial things. Have you never 
observed a bird lighting on twigs or branches which 
were too weak to sustain it? It flies from branch 
to branch, each of which sinks beneath its weight. 
So it is with the wicked. Their affections alight 
on one sublunary object, and then on another, but 
nothing of earthly texture is found substantial enough 
to bear them up. As it was with the dove which 
Noah sent forth from the ark, that found no rest for 
the sole of her foot, until she returned unto him into 
the ark, so is it with the hearts of the wicked. They 
have gone away from the only sure, substantial 
resting-place, and are seeking to find some terres- 
trial object that will serve as a rock to rest upon ; 
but how vain is such search. Dove-Jike they must 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 143 

return unto the place whence they have wandered, 
must return unto God, before they can find rest or 
peace. As well might we look for the ship to stand 
still, unmoved, on the mountain billow, on the waves 
of the lashed and foaming ocean, as expect to find 
human hearts at rest, whilst attempting to settle on 
the objects of this lower sphere. He builds on sand, 
ay, on the tossing wave, who builds beneath the 
skies. As soon as the soul begins fully to settle 
down on one earthly object, if not before, it is com- 
pelled to shift its quarters for another, and so an- 
other, and still another, until, too often, life's dream 
and life's pilgrimage come to a close together, and 
then, oh, what a shipwreck to the soul, with all its 
immortal interests ! 

Earthly objects, on which the affections of the 
wicked have been supremely seated — these, one 
after another, in this w r orld of changes, are swept 
away ; and under these losses, their souls have no 
almighty arm to lean upon, no God to go to. The 
God of heaven — he has been disowned, repudiated, 
by the sinners of earth ; and when earthly losses, 
therefore, and disappointments come, they have no 
God to buoy them up. The waves of adversity 
beat against their vessel ; afflictions roll in upon 
them like a flood ; loss follows loss in quick suc- 
cession, as wave follows wave, and where is some 
great, sustaining, supporting principle, now so much 
needed? The wicked have it not in their posses- 



144 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

sion. The christian — he can get up above the 
world when winds blow, and storms assail, and 
tempests roar, and billows beat. Yes, the christian 
can then mount up above the world ; can lay hold 
on the skies, for he has wings of faith with which 
to mount, and hands of faith with which to lay hold 
on heaven's pillars j and from his elevation he can 
look down on the commotion, the tempestuous, 
troubled scene below, with a serene countenance, 
and an unagitated heart. Or, in the very midst of 
such scenes, the children of the heavenly King can 
in patience possess their souls. But the wicked — 
what buoying, elevating, tranquillizing principle 
have they? Where is faith that has leaped from 
the skies? Where is heaven-born patience? These 
the wicked have not. They must get along with- 
out them as well as they can, amidst the disappoint- 
ments, losses, and trials of earth. And, verily, 
they get along poorly enough without them. They 
make many wry faces, and utter many sore com- 
plaints, and ofttimes appear quite overcome. Their 
heads sink beneath the billows ; by the hand some- 
times even of self-destruction they pass away. 

An Italian bishop struggled through great diffi- 
culties without repining, and met with much oppo- 
sition in the discharge of his episcopal functions 
without ever betraying the least impatience. An 
intimate friend of his, who highly admired those 
virtues which he thought it impossible to imitate. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 145 

one day asked the prelate if he could communicate 
his secret of being always easy? "Yes," replied 
the old man, " I can teach you my secret, and with 
great facility. It consists in nothing more than 
making a right use of my eyes." His friend begged 
him to explain himself. " Most willingly," returned 
the bishop : " In whatever state I am, I first of all 
look up to heaven, and remember that my principal 
business here is to get there. I then look down 
upon the earth, and call to mind how small a space 
I shall occupy in it when I come to be interred. I 
then look abroad in the world, and observe what 
multitudes there are who are in all respects more 
unhappy than myself. Thus I learn where true 
happiness is placed, where all our cares must end, 
and how very little reason I have to repine or com- 
plain." But we do not, reader, find the unregenerate 
making such a right use of their eyes, as did this 
good bishop of his. The heart must be changed, 
must be set right, before the eyes will take such 
right views of things. 

Again : The heart of the wicked is the seat of 
tormenting passions. Pride, for example, reigns in 
unbroken strength there, a passion which is a source 
of no small trouble to its possessor. The proud man 
is constantly meeting with something to cause un- 
easiness. He is perpetually looking for more respect 
and notice to be paid him, than is his due, or than 
others are willing to render. His mind is chafed, 
13 



146 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

his heart vexed with the veriest trifles. Holding 
his head high, bearing it aloft, it meets with many 
a catastrophe which the lowly christian escapes. 
There is envy also, which has its seat in the breast 
of the ungodly — a passion which causes a man to 
fret and grow lean when he witnesses the success 
and prosperity of others. And there is avarice, that 
uneasy, greedy passion which stretches out its arms 
like seas, as if solicitous to grasp in all the shore. 
This passion can hardly be said ever to be satisfied. 
Like the daughters of the horse-leech, it is continu- 
ally crying, " Give, give." Oh, how wide does this 
passion open its mouth, how ravenous its appetite, 
how large its stomach. Crowd in a world, and it 
will still cry for more. "A merchant who had 
accumulated a vast property by care and industry, 
yet still was as busy as ever in adding vessel to 
vessel, and store to store, though considerably ad- 
vanced in life, being asked by a neighbour how 
much property he supposed would satisfy a human 
being — after a short pause, significantly replied, 
1 A little more. 111 And there is ambition, likewise, 
that haunts the breast of many of the wicked, and 
makes their life a very uneasy one. It will toil 
and sweat not a little to gain an empty name. It 
will lead its possessor, as it were, through fire, and 
through water ; will cause him to compass sea and 
land to obtain a bubble. To discover the restless- 
ness of ambition, you need but to look at Alexander 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 147 

the Great, of whom it has been reported, that after 
conquering the most of the then inhabited globe, he 
sat down and wept because he could not find other 
worlds to conquer. 

Such are some of the evil passions which are found 
dwelling more or less in the bosoms of the wicked, 
and are so annoying as to tend to keep peace at a 
distance from their doors. The ungodly, under the 
influence of such passions as these, often prove very 
troublesome to each other — are ofttimes rendered by 
them unfit to dwell in the same neighbourhood ; 
and it seems sometimes almost an inconvenience to 
them that they are destined for a season to have a 
residence even in the same world. Possessed of 
such passions, the wicked continually carry about 
with them the principles of uneasiness. Wherever 
they are, howsoever employed, they are still " like 
the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters 
cast up mire and dirt." Unmortifled corruptions, 
domineering passions, and unbridled appetites and 
lusts, are productive to the wicked of much and 
almost constant disquietude. 

Again : The conscience of the wicked is in a state 
that is by no means peaceful. Even when that 
power is not so roused as to utter a voice loud as 
seven thunders, or so moved and quickened as to 
execute very faithfully the duties of its office ; when 
it has not to such a degree shaken off its torpor as 
to bite like a serpent, and sting like an adder — it is 



148 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

still in a greater or less measure in such a state, 
that, in the case of the wicked, it knows not peace. 
It may appear to be entirely asleep sometimes, seem 
very inactive, almost or quite to have lost all sensi- 
bility — yet if you closely scrutinize its state even 
then, you may find some habitually annoying con- 
viction of guilt in it — a something which keeps 
telling its possessor that he has done wrong in 
exiling himself from his Creator, disregarding the 
authority, and trampling under foot the laws of the 
Supreme Being; and in treating his heavenly Bene- 
factor with such dishonour and black ingratitude. 
It feels burdened and disturbed on this account. 
" Colonel Gardiner, while he was eagerly pursuing 
the vanities and follies of the world, appeared so full 
of life and spirit, that he got the name of the happy 
rake ; but after he became a new man, he declared 
that at the very time when he seemed so merry that 
others envied him his happiness, he was often so 
miserable in his own mind, as to wish himself a 
dog" There is a sort of load on the conscience of 
the impenitent, even in their most careless state — 
even when that conscience seems to be sleeping and 
snoring. Let God but just touch it as with the tip 
of his finger, and it will, like a lion, start up and 
roar terribly. Oh, how different from that state of 
conscience which the true and devoted christian has. 
He has an inward peace which passeth understand- 
ing. And he has peace with God too — a thing 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 149 

which the wicked have not. Jehovah is not. to 
to these latter, a reconciled Father, but, on the con- 
trary, a consuming fire. The inspired Psalmist 
tells us, that God is angry with the wicked every 
day ; and that " if they turn not, he will whet his 
sword ; he hath bent his bow and made it ready ; 
he hath also prepared for them the instruments of 
death." " O Lord, thou, even thou art to be feared ; 
and who may stand in thy sight when once thou 
art angry?" Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked 
come to aa end by timely repentance on their part ; 
by a turning unto Gk)d through faith in the sin- 
atoning Lamk 

Oh, to live all one's lifetime, here, an exile from 
God, an outcast from his favour and smiles, it is a 
poor way of living, a hard way of getting along 
indeed ! It is rather death than life. The way of 
transgressors, verily, is hard. To pass through life's 
pilgrimage with an angry God above, and with a 
heart at enmity with God — with no rays of sun- 
shine from on high, and no solid peace in the heart 
— may the Lord in his great mercy, dear reader, 
deliver you and me from such a wretched, living 
death as it ! 

And if to live thus is attended with wretchedness, 
or an entire destitution of peace, ah, what is it to 
die thus ? To be driven away in one's wickedness, 
to come to that bed where there is to be a giving 
up the ghost with a heart unreconciled to God ; to 
13* 



150 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

lay the head down on that pillow from which there 
is to be no lifting of it up, until the pains, the groans, 
and dying strife are encountered, and no Divine 
hand near to smooth and soften that pillow, no Sa- 
viour, no Prince of Peace at hand, whose smiles 
could chase away the gloom of the departing hour, 
and gladden the human spirit as it is about to leave 
its house of clay, and journey forth into the unseen 
world — ah, this, this is solemn, trying, mournful, 
terrific indeed ! Oh, dying reader, I would not at 
all like to go down into the vale of death thus ! I 
want my God as a Friend to be present, and his 
countenance beaming with smiles upon me, when 
my couch witnesses my dying struggle, and when 
I bid the world farewell ! 

And when the soul of the poor sinner, dying in 
his wickedness, has got out of this world, when 
the spirits of the wicked get into the world of 
spirits, how, how is it then ? What is their case 
there % Escaped from this world of turmoil and 
trouble, are they bettered in their condition in 
that eternal world whither they have gone 1 Des- 
titute of peace as their hearts were here, do they 
find peace there 1 Do they appear on the green, 
enchanting fields of Elysium with hearts filled with 
rapture, and with eyes gazing on before unseen, 
amazing, and unutterable glories? Oh, are they 
seen with spirits blissful beyond thought, now 
bathing in the pure river of the water of life ; and 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 151 

then skipping, bounding with joy over hill and 
through dale in the bright, heavenly paradise? 
What! the wicked go to heaven? the wicked, 
dying impenitent, dying in their wickedness, and 
yet happy after death? That would be strange 
indeed. Passing into eternity impure, unholy, and 
yet enter into the thrice holy city? Why, neither 
God nor angel would suffer such a thing to take 
place, or, if once entered, to tarry there quietly for 
a moment. If, in any clandestine, or underhanded 
way, the wicked in a body could, at some moment, 
get within the walls of the celestial city, why, as 
once in the case of the rebellious angels, so again, 
there would be war in heaven, until the ungodly 
were all thrust out. It is to be considered, 
moreover, that the sinner, carrying his depravity 
with him, would not be happy were he in heaven. 
Heaven would be no heaven to him. 

No, no. Satan, indeed, has said to the trans- 
gressor, " Thou shelt not surely die ;" but God has 
not so said. He has said the contrary. The devil 
tempts the sinner to say to himself, "I shall have 
peace, though I walk in the imagination of my 
heart." But God says, " There is no peace to the 
wicked.' 1 And I would be poorly, wickedly, cruelly 
employed this hour, w r ere I to hold up the idea to 
the unconverted reader of these pages, that his 
prospects in the futurity before him are nattering — 
were I to whisper in his ears, " Peace, peace," when 



152 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

to the wicked " there is no peace, saith my God." 
No, I will not say, peace, peace, to the wicked — 
will not say so to the impenitent friend who is now 
perusing these lines. When he plunges into eter- 
nity, sinks into hell, and continues there, I will not 
let him have it in his power to charge me with 
having deceived him. He shall not have it to say 
that I thus lured him to perdition. Hell ! an eter- 
nal hell ! Is it the abode of the wicked beyond 
death? Are they to spend almost the whole, this 
life subtracted, absolutely .the whole of their immor- 
tal existence in that place of unutterable torment? 
To live this short life on earth without peace } why, 
though bad truly, is comparatively a trifle. But to 
spend the ages heaped on ages of eternity without 
one drop of comfort, having no peace, no peace, day 
or night forever — ah, impenitent reader, think of it ! 
think of it until your heart quakes, and your soul 
leaps into the crimson tide flowing from Calvary. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 153 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE LORD'S INQUIRY. 

Reading, last evening, in the bodk of the prophet 
Jeremiah, I, not far from the beginning, came across 
this question : " How shall I put thee among the 
children?" Some thoughts suggested by it, uncon- 
verted reader, may perhaps not be unprofitable to 
you. I pray that they may not. 

At that time, only two of the Jewish tribes were 
dwelling in the Holy Land. The other ten tribes 
were, and for over fourscore years had been, in 
captivity in Assyria — had been exiled thither as a 
judgment for their grievous sins. From the time 
of Jeroboam I., they had almost wholly forsaken 
the worship of the true God. For two centuries 
and a half before they were borne into a strange 
land, they were almost entirely worshippers of idols, 
and were great offenders in other respects. Though 
in a state of exile on account of these* things, they 
were, even after so long a time, not a whit better; 
had not improved under the chastening hand of 
God ; but, on the contrary, were still growing 
worse. Their residence among the heathen, instead 



154 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

of exciting disgust and abhorrence at the vile prac- 
tices of the latter, rather tended to make them the 
more heathenish. They had also built houses and 
planted vineyards in the country where they were, 
and seemed not at all anxious to return to the land 
of their former abode. The power, too, that held 
them, appeared not on the decline, but rather on the 
increase. On the whole, there were many and 
great difficulties in the way of their being restored 
to the land of Canaan, and placed among and 
favoured with the privilege of God's children there. 
The Lord had indeed said, just before, "Go and 
proclaim these words toward the I^orth," (that is, 
toward Assyria, where they now were,) " Return, 
thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord ; and I will 
not cause mine anger to fall upon you ; for I am 
merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger 
forever." But then, he again, as it were, thinks of 
their unworthiness ; of their persistence in the sins 
which had caused him to banish them ; of their 
unfitness to be placed in Palestine, amtjng his 
people ; and other things ; — his mind reverts to 
these, and he is caused to give utterance to the 
inquiry, " How shall I put thee among the chil- 
dren ?" • 

The land of Canaan was a type of the heavenly 
land. And if the former was inhabited by those 
whom the Lord was pleased to denominate his 
children, the inhabitants of the latter he is pecu- 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 155 

liarly willing to call and own as such. The celes- 
tial country is peopled in part by natives, for such 
the holy angels are. These derived their being 
from God, and in this sense he is their Father. 
Toward him who gave them being, they have 
always possessed and exercised a filial spirit; they 
delighted to call God their Father, and to act toward 
him as if they felt him to be so ; and he was as 
much pleased to call them his sons or children. In 
the book of Job, there are two places in which the 
holy angels are denominated the "sons of God:" 
In the 1st chapter and 6th verse, " Now there was 
a day when the sons of God," (meaning the holy 
angels,) — and in the 38th chapter and 7th verse, 
" And all the sons of God shouted for joy," where 
the same beings are meant. 

These have the heavenly land for their abode. 
But that land is not appropriated exclusively to 
these. There is quite a number of creatures of 
another race there also — we mean, of the human 
race. Astonishing that it should be so ; for the 
whole human race lost their holiness ; all fell from 
God. Still, a portion of this race are actually in 
the celestial country. God found some way of pre- 
paring them for, and receiving them there. They 
are there in a disembodied state, however, and so 
are spoken of as " the spirits of just men made per- 
fect." Were all these counted, they would be ascer- 
tained to be already by no means a small company. 



156 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

Some of these ascended from the earth, and took up 
their residence there before the flood ; many more 
between the deluge and the coming of Jesus Christ ; 
and a still larger number since. Those human 
spirits that have gone up, and are living among the 
angels, the Lord calls his children. Amazing con- 
descension, certainly — for they were once aliens, 
and enemies to him ; were once strongly opposed 
to the Lord, and were children of another father, 
servants of another master. But they became 
changed, dear reader, in their dispositions and con- 
duct, and God adopted them into his family ; called 
them sons and daughters. They were in a strange 
way delivered from their guilt and filthiness. They 
glory in nothing now so much as in being able to 
call God their Father ; and are now actually in the 
heavenly Canaan ; mingling with creatures that 
never fell ; holding communion with the same infi- 
nite Father ; bending before the same throne ; and 
sharing in the same privileges and joys. They are 
perfectly holy creatures, however, as are the angels, 
and cease not, day or night, any more than do 
seraphs, from praising and serving Jehovah. 

Now, on this earth are myriads of sinners, un- 
changed sinners — creatures so unlike to the heaven- 
ly inhabitants of which we have been speaking, as 
to have no filial spirit toward the Lord God, and as 
to engage not at all in his service. Yet some of 
these very ones may not be able to see or conjecture, 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 157 

should they die to-day, why they may not be admit- 
ted into heaven, as well as those who have actually 
entered there. They may be unable to discover 
any serious obstacle in the way. They neither con- 
sider, nor think they have any reason to consider 
themselves as very bad — far from it ; and they 
have besides heard, and see no reason to disbelieve 
it, that Jehovah is merciful. They hence infer that 
he will not be very strict or particular in regard to 
whom he admits into the celestial region. 

It is not uncommon for unchanged, unrenewed 
sinners to feel differently in relation to this matter, 
from what even earthly saints or christian pilgrims 
do. These last, not unfrequently, have such a dis- 
covery of their aberrations and shortcomings, and 
such a sense of the greatness and power of their 
corruptions, as to cause them to wonder how they 
can ever have the celestial gates thrown open to 
them; how they can ever become companions of 
the cherubim, and the spirits of perfectly holy men. 
It seems sometimes to them as if there were wonder- 
ful obstacles still in the way. But, my dear reader, 
not so, always, does it appear to the inconsiderate 
and blinded sinner. He, on the contrary, will per- 
haps think it strange almost, if he should not take 
up his abode in the Canaan on high, and mingle 
with the inhabitants of that better land, when called 
away from this lower country. 

But God looks upon this matter very differently 
14 



158 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

from what the self-righteous, self-partial, or blinded 
sinner does. The Lord sees, of one kind or another, 
so much in the way of it. that he may be considered, 
oh sinner, as feelingly and earnestly saying to you 
now, and again at the hour of your giving up the 
ghost, " How shall I put thee among the children?" 
How shall I put thee in the goodly land above, and 
among my pure and beloved creatures there? 

There are certainly, my reader, great difficulties 
in the way of the impenitent and unchanged sinner 
being put into the heavenly Canaan, and among 
the saints and holy angels there. Some of these 
difficulties we will proceed to mention. 

1st. One of the difficulties in the way of this is, 
that it would militate against God's truth. The 
Lord has promised heaven to certain ones, plainly 
implying that to those of contrary character or ways 
he will not grant admittance there. We find, for 
instance, such a question asked as this: "Lord, who 
shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in 
thy holy hill ?" A part of the answer is : " He that 
walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness." 
We are left to infer, that those who do not answer 
to this description shall not dwell in the place there 
specified. But the sinner does not walk uprightly, 
and work righteousness. It is by implication said, 
then, that he shall not dwell in God's holy hill. Yet 
this would prove untrue, should the unconverted 
sinner be put along with God's children on the 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 159 

summits of glory. Again ; in the 24th Psalm, it is 
asked, " Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? 
and who shall stand in his holy place?' 1 The an- 
swer is : " He that hath clean hands and a pure 
heart. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord." 
The inference is forced upon us, amounting to a 
declaration from the divine mouth, that the creature 
who has not clean hands and a pure heart, and 
these I need not say the sinner has not, shall not 
stand in God's holy place. And so, wherever else 
you find a promise of the heavenly Canaan given, 
it is to them of a contrary character or ways from 
those of the unsanctified sinner — plainly asserting 
in the form of implication, that to him it is not to 
be given. 

But more particularly and clearly may we see, from 
the direct threatenings of the Lord, that the wicked 
cannot be placed in heaven without militating against 
God's truth. Let us look at a few of those declara- 
tions of God which have the form of threatenings. 
These are some of them : " The ungodly shall not 
stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congre- 
gation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the 
way of the righteous ; but the way of the ungodly 
shall perish. — For thou art not a God that hath 
pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell 
with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. 
— Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and 
brimstone, and an horrible tempest : this shall be the 



160 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

portion of their cup. — The soul that sinneth, it shall 
die. — The wages of sin is death. — These," speak- 
ing of the wicked, "these shall go away into ever- 
lasting punishment. — And they that have done evil 
unto the resurrection of damnation. — And the smoke 
of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever." 
Does it not from these declarations, appear as clear 
as any thing can, that God cannot put the un- 
changed, unsanctifled sinner among his children in 
heaven, without falsifying his word? without a 
sacrifice of his character for truth? This is one 
difficulty. 

2d. Another difficulty in the way of the unchanged 
sinner being put into the upper Canaan among the 
Lord's children is, that it would militate against or 
be in the face of the justice of God. The sinner, 
as you have just seen, is threatened w T ith an exclu- 
sion from heaven not only, but with everlasting 
punishment for his sins. Now why is he thus 
threatened? Did God act without any reason in 
this matter ? Did the creature, on account of sin, 
not deserve such treatment as he is threatened with, 
think you that he would have been thus threatened ? 
If it had been unjust to execute the threatening, 
think you that it would have ever issued from God's 
lips? When you look at the law, you find what 
the penalty is, in case of disobedience. Now would 
such a penalty have ever been affixed, if what it 
embodies was not due in case of transgression of the 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 161 

law, or of non-conformity to it? By no means. 
That penalty shows what sin deserves, what is due 
to it, or rather what is due the sinner on account of 
it. God has rights ; the sinner invades them. God 
has just claims ; the sinner withholds what the 
Lord justly claims. The Almighty tells him what 
he deserves on account of invading his rights, or 
withholding his claims ; tells what justice demands, 
even the sinner's everlasting death. Now, can the 
sinner get into heaven in the face of this ? No satis- 
faction rendered by him personally, or otherwise, 
to divine justice, and yet he escape not only, but be 
put into a pleasant and magnificent habitation for 
ever besides ? Surely that, reader, cannot be, can it ? 
Take this additional consideration. It appears 
from scripture, that the invasion of a right, or the 
withholding of a just claim, in a single instance^ de- 
serves everlasting death. An individual act of this 
kind is threatened with such a punishment. If the 
human creature broke the divine law in a single 
instance^ divine justice would require that he should 
be cast into hell. Adam was threatened with death 
upon one transgression. So is every one of his 
descendants. Now, in how many instances has 
the sinner broken the divine law? In how many 
instances has he invaded the rights, or withholden 
the just claims of God? Could he count them, if 
he should try ? Are not his acts of this sort liter- 
ally innumerable? And can he, then, in the face 
14* 



162 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

of the vast, mountainous debt which he has con- 
tracted — in the face of these innumerable sins, each 
of which deserves such a judicial infliction — oh, can 
he, in the face of all this, be put into heaven, among 
God's saints and angels there ? Do you not see 
what an obstacle divine justice presents against 
such a thing? 

3d. Another difficulty, reader, in the way of put- 
ting the unchanged, unsanctified sinner among God's 
heavenly family is, that it would be very offensive 
and derogatory to the holiness of God. That Jeho- 
vah is a holy Being, so holy that the heavens are 
not clean in his sight — that in consequence of the 
infinite holiness of his nature and feelings, he bears 
an intense hatred to sin, in every form of it, and so 
hates all the workers of iniquity as such, — that he 
is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look 
on iniquity, so great is his abhorrence of it, and 
opposition to it — is what we are told, and clearly, 
in the scriptures of truth. Now is not here an ob- 
stacle, an insuperable one, to the unsanctified sinner's 
being admitted into the glorious presence of God ? 
for God's heavenly family are in his glorious pre- 
sence. What! admit a creature covered and per- 
vaded by what God intensely, infinitely hates, into 
his immediate presence ? Will he displease himself 
so much as to bring into his house and family, a 
creature that, on account of its defilement, is so 
offensive, that he cannot bear to look at or cast his 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 163 

eyes upon it? That would be a strange thing in- 
deed. No ; he will keep out the unsanctified, 
unholy creature from his glorious presence and 
kingdom — we may be sure of it. Such a loath- 
some, disgusting object he would not pollute heaven 
with, nor have any where near him. He will keep 
every such object outside the walls of the celestial 
city, yes, and at a much greater distance from where 
his glorified children live. What did God do with 
that portion of the angels that meddled with sin, 
and so soon as they meddled with or became tainted 
by it ? Did he let them stay quietly in heaven ? Did 
he suffer them to abide there as before % Did he not, 
on the contrary, in his holy indignation, immediately 
rise, and drive, hurl them out of the holy city % He 
would not, indeed, let them stop and live any where 
near the place of their previous residence. He drove 
them far, far off — to an irreturnable distance from 
his blest abode. This he did, because he was so 
holy, and hated sin so much. And would he, after 
all that, would he now, admit into heaven, into the 
the very place from which he expelled the sinning 
angels — would he, I ask, admit any other, and natu- 
rally inferior creature, that has stained itself with 
the abominable thing, there? He would not act 
so inconsistently. Besides ; it would imply that he 
now had ceased to hate sin, or, at least, that he now 
hated it less than he once did ; that the immutable 



164 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

God had changed in this particular. What an 
absurdity ! 

In addition ; suppose that God would and did 
open the door of heaven to the unchanged, unsanc- 
tioned sinner, he would then connive at sin, would 
he not? and all his other intelligent creatures would 
find out that he connived at sin: why, then, would 
not the holy portion of them begin to regard God 
with less admiration, and feel toward him less esteem, 
than they previously did? Would he not sink in 
their estimation amazingly? And how astonish- 
ingly, moreover, would the motives to obedience 
and submission be weakened ! Should the Lord treat 
the defiled and disobedient in the same way that 
he does the holy and obedient, one of the greatest and 
most powerful motives to obedience and holy living 
would be taken away or wanting. Encouragement 
would be thereby afforded to the rational creatures 
of God to disobey or sin whenever and as much as 
they might be tempted, or, on one or another account 
might choose to. Sin might then reign universally 
on this globe, and no one fare the worse here, or 
have the. prospect of faring the worse hereafter for 
it. Indeed, as God's holy creatures are rewarded 
for holy service, if, without a change, the sinning, 
unsanctified portion could be admitted into paradise, 
and fare as well there as the obedient and holy, then 
would the former appear to be rewarded for sin, in- 
ward and actual. The awful spectacle would then 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 165 

be witnessed, of creatures being rewarded with ever- 
lasting glory and felicity for sinning against God. 
The thought how shocking ! 

4th. Another difficulty in the way of God's put- 
ting the unchanged sinner among his saints and 
angels in the celestial Canaan is, that it would have 
a tendency to disturb the peace and harmony of 
heaven. God has promised his people rest and 
peace after this life. Heaven is described as a place 
of rest : " There remaineth a rest to the people of 
God." But, reader, how would that rest be disturbed, 
how interfered with, if impure and sinning creatures 
were put into u the city of habitation," as well as the 
holy. Uniformity or similarity of sentiment and 
feeling is essential to the peace and harmony of any 
society. Now the holy residents in paradise, and 
the sinner, think and feel very differently, the one 
from the other. Act together they could not in any 
thing. If the saints and angels, for instance, wanted 
to sing a song of praise to their infinite Creator, and 
should begin, why, the sinner, if there, would begin 
to growl, throw in his tones of discord, commence 
cursing the great T AM, or, in other ways, try to 
interrupt and stop them. Suppose the holy throng 
should propose some work of service to the infinite 
King, the sinner would not agree to the proposal ; 
if they commenced, he would not join in it, but on 
the contrary, would endeavour to prevent the exe- 
cution of it by the others. If they should cast their 



166 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

crowns at the foot of the throne, and cry, " Worthy 
art thou, O Jehovah, of higher praise and thanks- 
giving than we can offer," the sinner, if there, would 
be so far from uniting, that he would call them fools, 
tell them to pick up their crowns, and quit their 
nonsense. If one unchanged sinner might be ad- 
mitted into the heavenly Canaan, why not more? 
why not a large number? why not even all when 
called away from here ? And what sort of a place 
would heaven then be ? What would become of 
peace and concord ? How would the wicked annoy 
the holy! What jarring, discord, and confusion 
would they cause ! They would hate God's chil- 
dren ; oppose, persecute them ; and would do all in 
their power to destroy their happiness, and keep 
them from praising and serving the Lord. Now 
do you suppose, my unconverted friend, that God 
would put any creature into heaven that he knew, 
if there, would annoy his children thus; that would 
cause jarring and discomfort in every part of para- 
dise ; that would interfere with the fulfilment of 
their Father's kind designs and promises to rijs 
children ; that would so much detract from the 
reward he had given them reason to expect ; ay, 
and from the amount of glory, praise, and service 
that would otherwise be rendered to him? Of course 
not. 

5th. Still another difficulty in the way of God's 
giving the unchanged sinner a place among his 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 167 

heavenly family is, that such sinner would not enjoy 
himself if he were there. He would not like the 
appearance, the customs, the apparel, nor the fare 
of the place. He would not be pleased with the 
food nor beverage, of which the inhabitants of the 
upper Canaan partake. He would feel uncomfort- 
able in a company who were employed in such 
exercises as saints and seraphs on high are. He 
would have no taste for their songs, no relish for 
their conversation, no liking for their employments. 
He would not be satisfied with the way in which 
the celestial city is lighted j he would even prefer 
not having it lighted at all, considering the charac- 
ter of the objects which are in it, as well as how the 
light would cause him to appear. The sinner, as 
you know, does, even in this world, prefer darkness 
to light. You have observed, too, that he does not 
like religious conversation and devotion here ; and 
that he gets much wearied if called to pass an hour 
or two where Jehovah is prayed unto and praised. 
Reader, if you were a holy creature in heaven, and 
a sinner, for experiment, were put within its walls, 
what would you witness? Why, you would not 
see him drawing near the dazzling throne of the 
Eternal One to worship him. You would not see 
him entering into conversation, delightingly, with 
saint and seraph ; — nor following the Lamb, as he 
leads his redeemed and sanctified ones unto the 
living waters, which come gushing here and there 



168 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

out of the hills of paradise ; — nor opening his mouth 
to receive the food which the Lamb has to give. 
You would observe him strolling off, and trying to 
get by himself, that he, might not be annoyed by 
the sight of the blazing throne of the Infinite King, 
nor by the songs of the worshippers round about 
that throne. And should you watch, you might, 
perhaps, after a while, see him creeping along close 
to the wall that skirts the heavenly country, and 
searching for some opening where he may have a 
chance to get out of a place which is to him so 
mightily disagreeable. 

You see, my impenitent friend, from what has 
been said, that there are real and great difficulties 
in the way of the unchanged sinner being put among 
God's children in the heavenly Canaan. I say, un- 
changed sinner : for there are, on the sunny hills 
of that upper country, and in large numbers, too, 
those who were once sinners, sinners on the earth, 
and of Adam's offspring. They got there somehow. 
But how? Such difficulties as we have mentioned 
were once lying in their way. Was it, then, in the 
face, or in spite of them that they arrived or were 
put there 1 Did this occur, for instance, in the face 
of God's justice, and holiness, and truth ? Did these 
suffer, were these illustrious attributes tarnished by 
their admittance to the hill country of the skies ? 
You may be sure, not. They were admitted there 
after such a manner that the glory of none of these 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 169 

perfections was soiled in the least thereby. The 
holiness, justice, and truth of God, in their case, 
opposed no obstacles. These, severally, were satis- 
fied first. This was done through a substitute, Jesus 
Christ the righteous. His obedience and atoning 
sufferings were offered them by the gospel to present 
as a satisfaction on their behalf to God. They plead 
before the Father thus : u We suffered the penalty 
of the law, we met the demands of justice, in Christy 
whom we have accepted by faith as our substitute. 
By him we have paid the debt which we had con- 
tracted. Thou hast executed the threatening of the 
law which was against us, thou hast exhibited thy 
hatred to our sin, and thy righteous demands have 
received satisfaction, in Him whom thou didst give 
to be, and whom we have received as a Saviour!" 
God heard their plea. His justice, holiness, truth, 
all professed themselves satisfied in reference to 
them ; and so, when they were taken from the 
earth, interposed no obstacles to their reception to 
the upper skies. 

And as to those other difficulties which we men- 
tioned, viz., the possession of a spirit, of views, dispo- 
sitions, feelings, that could not harmonize with those 
of the heavenly inhabitants : a spirit which would 
tend to create disturbance in a region designed 
specially by the Lord as the abode of rest and peace ; 
and, moreover, a want of taste for the avocations, 
and of relish for the joys of heaven — so peculiar 
15 



170 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

are they — why, these difficulties became removed, 
in the case of those who left this lower for the 
upper sphere, and anterior to the taking of their 
departure. Before their souls took their flight from 
their bodies, they had their dispositions and their 
tastes changed, so changed, as that they liked similar 
employments and pleasures with those of the celes- 
tial inhabitants. Do you ask, how ? Why, here 
dear reader, were rich streams of mercy flowing ; 
here were tenders of gospel grace made. They 
drank of those streams ; they accepted of those 
tenders ; and they became wonderfully different 
creatures from what they were before. The Holy 
Spirit came and offered to take away what was 
wrong in them ; came and offered to give beauty 
in the room of deformity ; purity in the room of 
pollution ; heavenly principles in the room of those 
corrupt ones of which the natural heart is the seat. 
And that Almighty Spirit was not bidden away, 
nor were his offers slighted. Thus came they to 
the possession of a meetness for such an abode as 
that of the upper Canaan. They got, you see, the 
temper and the tastes of children, before God put 
them among the children. 

Now, (hear it, dear impenitent friend,) the sinner 
who is yet on these mortal shores, and who lives 
under the light of the gospel sun, might, if he would, 
obtain a title to, and a meetness for the heavenly Ca- 
naan, in a way similar to that in which those whom 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 171 

we have just noticed, obtained the one and the other 
of these. The sinner, if he would, might so avail 
himself of the merits and sacrificial virtues of the 
death of Jesus, for instance, as that neither the jus- 
tice, the holiness, nor the truth of God would inter- 
pose obstacles to his translation to the celestial Judea, 
when his earthly house of this tabernacle shall totter 
and fall. And he might, moreover, if he would, so 
avail himself of the proffered aid and influences of 
the Holy Spirit, as that he would not be a disturber 
of the peace of the heavenly community, if put among 
them ; nor have a soul that would dislike heaven's 
employments, sicken at its songs, or loathe its pro- 
visions. 

And this suggests another and peculiarly mourn- 
ful obstacle in the way of the sinner, while un- 
changed, being put into the celestial world when 
he dies. The difficulty is this: that the poor de- 
praved creature, in instances beyond reckoning, is 
not disposed to avail himself of what the gospel 
proffers ; is unwilling to avail himself of the benefits 
of Christ's death, and the aids of the spirit of grace. 
How common is it to find sinners, even where the 
gospel rays thickly fall, and where what the gospel 
has to give is freely tendered, refusing to satisfy the 
demands of the law against them, by taking Christ's 
blood and death, and pleading them before God — 
unwilling and refusing to render a satisfaction to 
the justice and truth of God, by throwing themselves 



172 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

on the sure platform of substitution — on the vicarious 
sufferings of God's only begotten Son. Oh, how 
much are they urged to do so — but they will not. 
They are on their way to the judgment-seat, and 
will soon, oh, how soon, be there ; but they have 
no such interest in what Christ has done and endured, 
as that God's justice, holiness, and truth shall raise 
no objection to their being put into the city which 
hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is 
God. Appearing there on their own footing, these 
will raise objections insuperable to their being put 
among God's children, in the glorious region where 
they live. 

How common also is it — do you not know it, 
reader ? — to find sinners unwilling to become " new 
creatures ;" unwilling to have their depravity purged 
out ; to have their dispositions and feelings, tempers 
and tastes, changed by the Spirit of God. They 
refuse to yield to his renewing, transforming, puri- 
fying influences ; refuse to be made meet to occupy 
a place where the holy angels, and the spirits of 
just men made perfect, have their residence. Though 
much urged, entreated, so to do, they refuse to be- 
come God's children, to become possessors of the 
mind and spirit of God's children, and so perpetuate 
the obstacles to their being put where his children 
of the human and angelic order dwell. 

Now, sinner, I wish to tell you, and I will do it 
as tenderly as I can, that your conduct must change 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 173 

in reference to what the gospel has to give ; your 
conduct must alter in reference to Jesus Christ and 
the Holy Spirit, or heaven can never be your home. 
As matters at present stand, the difficulties which 
are in the way are such, that you cannot possibly, in 
the face of them, enter the golden city. You must 
have such a title to heaven, and such a meetness for 
it, as are to be obtained by throwing yourself on 
Christ ; and entertaining the Spirit's enlightening, 
transforming, sanctifying influences, or the goodly 
land of Canaan, beyond Jordan's waves, that soul 
which you have will never be allowed to enter. So 
far as respects our species, heaven is intended only 
for those who have an evangelical title to, and meet- 
ness for it. You, O sinner, at present have neither. 
Be persuaded, then, without delay, to throw yourself 
on Calvary's bloody sacrifice, and to give your soul 
to the Spirit, to be created anew, that your home, 
hereafter, and forever, may be with God's holy and 
happy children. 



15* 



174 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 



CHAPTER X. 

CORRECT REASONING. 

The reasoning- to which I allude, reader, is that 
of four leprous men who lived in the time of the 
prophet Elisha, and during the reign of Jehoram, 
king of Israel. The city of Samaria was suffering 
from an attack of the Syrians. Benhadad, king of 
Syria, had gathered his forces, and gone and be- 
sieged Samaria. It seems that the Syrians met 
with little opposition till they came to the capital, 
which was a fenced city, i. g., a city walled, and 
otherwise fortified. This town appears to have 
been attacked at this time so suddenly by them, 
that its inhabitants had.no time or opportunity 
allowed them to lay in any special store of provisions, 
so that it seemed now illy prepared to stand it out 
long against the besiegers. It was at length reduced, 
as a consequence of the siege, to a state of great dis- 
tress. Want stared them in the face. Scarcity as 
to provisions became so great, that the inhabitants 
were to a man, threatened with death from starva- 
tion. " There was a great famine," says the inspired 
historian, " in Samaria : And behold, they besieged 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 175 

it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces 
of silver." (2 Kings, vi. 25.) If these pieces of silver 
were shekels, then about the sum of forty dollars 
was on this occasion paid for the head of an animal 
which was ceremonially unclean ; which was not 
commonly used for food ; and which afforded very 
little sustenance. Such a bargain, it seems, was, 
at this distressing period, at least once if not oftener, 
made, in the urgency of hunger. The extremity 
of the famine to which this city was reduced by the 
siege against it, appears very great, from another cir- 
cumstance, related after the one already mentioned. 
The account is in these words: "As the king of 
Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a 
woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king ! 
And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence 
shall I help thee ? out of the barn-floor, or out of 
the wine-press ? And the king said unto her, 
What aileth thee ? And she answered, This 
woman," (a neighbour, I suppose,) " this woman 
said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him 
to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow. So we 
boiled my son, and did eat him ; and I said unto 
her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat 
him; and behold she hath hid her son." 

Now whilst such a state of things existed within 
the city, there were four leprous men lodging in 
tents outside of its walls, who experienced the dire 
effects of the scarcity which raged within. They 



176 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

had their lodging "without" the gate, being ex- 
cluded the city, because as lepers they were cere- 
monially unclean. The rule laid down concerning 
lepers, as given to Moses in the law, was this: 
"And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes 
shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put 
a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Un- 
clean, unclean ! he shall dwell alone ; without the 
camp shall his habitation be." (Lev. xiii. 45, 46.) 
In another place, also, (Num. v. 1 — 4,) it is said, 
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Com- 
mand the children of Israel, that they put out of 
the camp every leper — both male and female shall 
ye put out ; without the camp shall ye put them ; 
that they defile not their camp in the midst where- 
of they dwell. And," it is added, " the children of 
Israel did so, and put them out without the camp: 
as the Lord spake unto Moses, so did the children 
of Israel." We here have the reason assigned, why 
the four leprous men were lodging outside instead 
of within the walls of the city. They lodged, how- 
ever, near the walls without, it seems : for they are 
spoken of as being u at the entering in of the gate." 
(2 Kings, vii. 3.) Inasmuch as the famine raged 
to such an extreme in the city, these lepers were on 
the point of perishing from starvation : for none 
came from within the town out to them to bring 
them food ; and th^y were so enfeebled or other- 
wise affected by the leprosy, that they were not able, 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 177 

probably, to procure the necessaries of life by any 
labour of their own. They therefore deliberate, or 
consult one another, as to what shall be done to 
escape, if possible, the death from want which 
threatens them. Their deliberations, and the con- 
clusion to which they at length come, are given in 
the following words : u They said one to another, 
Why sit we here until we die ? If we say, we will 
enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, 
and we shall die there ; and if we sit still here, we 
die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto 
the host of the Syrians : if they save us alive, w T e 
shall live ; and if they kill us, we shall but die." 
(2 Kings, vii. 3, 4.) 

They attempted to carry this resolution immedi- 
ately into effect ; the consequence of which was, 
that their lives were saved, and that, too, in a pro- 
vidential and very unexpected manner. We are 
told that " they rose up in the twilight, to go unto 
the camp of the Syrians ; and when they were come 
to the uttermost part of the camp, behold, there was 
no man there. For the Lord had made the host 
of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise 
of horses, even the noise of a great host : and they 
said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired 
against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings 
of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore 
they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their 
tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the 



178 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

camp as it was, and fled for their life. And when 
these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, 
they went into one tent and did eat and drink" — 
found provisions to save them from death by famine 
— " and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, 
and went and hid it ; and came again and entered 
into another tent, and carried thence also, and went 
and hid it." (2 Kings, vii. 5—8.) They also carried 
news to the people within the city, of the departure 
of the Syrians, and thus were instrumental in deliv- 
ering them earlier than they otherwise would have 
been, from the fears and miseries of famine. 

The reasoning of these lepers, reader, is that which 
I wish you to fix in your mind, together with the 
resolution to which they came, and the result of 
carrying that resolution into effect. These lepers 
" said one to another, Why sit we here until we 
die? If we say, we will enter into the city, then 
the famine is in the city, and we shall die there ; 
and if we sit still here, we die also. Now there- 
fore,' ' &c. 

Unconverted reader, both you and allunregenerate 
sinners are affected with a leprosy — the leprosy of 
sin ; and being thus affected, are, in consequence, 
excluded from the camp of God's Israel. You are 
outside the walls of Zion, or the true spiritual church 
of God. You are likewise in danger, as the lepers 
were ; in danger of death ; but a death much more 
tremendous than that to which the four lepers, of 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 179 

whom you have heard, were exposed : — a death not 
merely temporal, and of the body, but the eternal 
death of the soul. And as there was more than one 
way in which the lepers might die a natural, so are 
there more ways than one in which you and other 
sinners may come to die an eternal death — ay, quite 
a number of ways. There are many ways in which 
sinners may be lost forever; although, as with the 
lepers, there is one general cause. Famine, or want, 
was the general cause with the four leprous men. 
With all unconverted or impenitent sinners, sin is 
the general cause. But as the leprous men might, 
and were in danger of dying from famine in more 
than one way ; so are sinners in danger of dying, 
or being lost eternally, from sin, in more ways than 
one. 

I. The four leprous men said one to another, 
" Why sit we here until we die ? If we sit still 
here," say they, " we die." So may it be said, 
reader, by you, and by every unconverted sinner, 
1 If I sit still where I am, I die — die forever. 7 

Mankind are not naturally in so safe a state that 
they can indulge sloth, or sit still without danger. 
Their state being a sinful one, it is attended with 
peril, such peril that they have need to awake, and 
rise up, and look about them. God, nowhere within 
the lids of the Bible, encourages the sinner to expect 
life or salvation, if he sits still where he is — if he sits 
still in his sins. The Lord does not anywhere say 



180 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

to him, c Sleep, and you shall be saved — indulge in 
sloth, or sit still in carelessness, and you shall not 
die ; you shall go to heaven.' This is not God's 
appointed way of escaping the wrath to come. Look 
at the case of the man mentioned in the 25th of 
Matthew, who went and hid in the earth the talent 
entrusted to him by his master. When he came to 
be reckoned with, his lord said unto him, " Thou 
wicked and slothful servant," — wicked because 
slothful, as well as slothful because wicked. " Take, 
therefore," says his lord, u the talent from him, and 
give it unto him who hath ten talents. And cast 
ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness : 
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

God nowhere sanctions idleness. He says to 
those not engaged in his service, " Why sit ye here 
all the day idle ?.'■ Some persons do not seem to 
imagine that sins of omission are hardly sins at all. 
Let such glance at the account of the judgment-day 
and its proceedings, as given in the latter part of 
the 25th of Matthew. Who are they to whom the 
Judge will say, Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
everlasting fire ? Why, you may at once see, there, 
that they are those that did not — did not do the 
things which it was their duty to have done. They 
were idle. They are condemned for sitting still. 
44 They go away," according to the account there 
given, or language used, — i: they go away into 
everlasting punishment," for omission or inaction. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 181 

Do not misunderstand me : I say, according to the 
account there given. The provisions of God's grace 
themselves are not, in the scriptures, represented as 
attainable, or at least as attained, by the negligent 
and slothful. Far from it. " How shall we escape," 
says an inspired penman, u if we neglect so great 
salvation V* The five foolish virgins were sleeping, 
whilst they should have been busy in providing oil 
for their lamps. The consequence was, that when 
the bridegroom came, they were not ready for him, 
and were consequently shut out. You cannot sit 
still — not any sinner can, and yet comply with the 
requisitions of the gospel. That demands activity. 
That requires the whole man, with all its powers, 
to be stirred up to action. The demands of the 
gospel are, Repent, Believe, Watch, Pray, Deny 
thyself, Take up thy cross, Follow me. These 
things seem to be requisite before a fallen being 
can share in the joys and immunities of heaven. 
Yet these things imply great activity, ay, and activity 
of all the human powers, in a certain way. The 
Lord Jesus Christ says, " Strive." — as the original 
imports, agonize — " strive as those that run for a 
prize " — exert yourself to the utmost, — u to enter in at 
the strait gate : for many will seek to enter in, and 
shall not be able." Sinners are not in a vessel on 
a stream, where they may sit still and yet be borne 
as by the natural current to the secure and blissful 
harbour of heaven. Such are far from being the 
16 



182 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

representations of the God of truth in his word. 
Yet how many, oh, what large numbers of sinners 
are sitting still ; are doing nothing, nothing at all, 
to escape impending destruction. O careless, im- 
penitent creature ! what mean you ? Why are you 
sitting idle, " still," amidst gathering storms, and a 
lowering sky ? Can you be so blind and insensible 
as to be unapprehensive of danger ? Onward are 
you wafted, and with what rapidity, by time's swift 
current, toward eternity's ocean ; your soul, your 
all in jeopardy, and yet what listlessness ! what 
iorpitude ! as if there was naught to be attended to; 
as if all was safe, all well with you ! How mourn- 
ful, how heart-rending a sight it is, to see a poor, 
impenitent, unchanged creature, so stupid, blind, 
and hardened in sin, as to remain unmoved, care- 
less, prayerless, whilst he knows not at what hour 
the cold mists of death shall settle upon him, and 
his spirit pass beyond the confines of mercy. Flee, 
O my impenitent friend, I beseech you, flee from 
hastening wrath. Those dark clouds, and that 
bellowing thunder, betoken a storm. Seek a shel- 
ter ; escape for thy life ! " A dying man, who had 
cared for every thing more than for his soul, awoke 
in an agony, as the scene of life was drawing to a 
close, and throwing upon his wife a look of wild- 
ness and terror, exclaimed, C I am going — but where! 
where P " These were the last words he uttered, 
before he was called to his final account. Death 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 183 

had taken him by surprise. The valley before him 
was all darkness and despair, and he shuddered on 
entering it. Reader, remember you are very soon 
to go — and, Where ? where ? 

The lepers had become sensible, it seems, of their 
danger. They had been sitting still j but they are 
now brought to see that this will not do. They 
appear now fully convinced that something must be 
done, or die they must. There is no perad venture 
about it, if they remain where they are. " Why sit 
we here," say they, "until we die?" They had 
fully made up their minds, it appears, as to the con- 
sequences of sitting still : for they add, in the most 
positive language, u If we sit still here, we die." 
They discovered their danger. But it was not now 
merely a matter of discovery; it had become at this 
time also a matter of feeling, of deep feeling. They 
had become alarmed, so great, imminent, the danger 
that threatened them — and they had cause to be 
alarmed. 

Would that the impenitent reader of these pages, 
and every other sinner, might both see and feel as 
much. Would that they all were so awakened to 
a sight and sense of their fearful condition, as to be 
constrained to say, one to another, or at least to 
themselves, not only with the positiveness, but also 
with the anxious feeling of the lepers, " If we sit 
still here, we die." But alas ! how many are there 
who have apparently no concern about their situa- 



184 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

tion, though it is infinitely more perilous than that 
of the lepers. They are so immersed in worldly 
cares and business ; they have so many earthly 
schemes to occupy their thoughts, and absorb and 
interest the feelings of their carnal, unrenewed hearts, 
that they have no time, or thought, or feeling to de- 
vote to their spirits immortal. Oh, what inexpres- 
sible, infinite peril are all unrepentant sinners in ; 
yet there is but here and there one that appears to 
feel or even to see it. What crowds are whirling 
toward perdition, with as little thought or concern 
as the ox passes on to the slaughter. Sinner, I 
entreat you to think. Rush not onward to an eter- 
nal hell without thinking where you are going ! 

We remarked that the four lepers became sensi- 
ble, deeply so, that it would not do for them to sit 
still — that they must do something if they would 
escape death. And what must they do? Must 
they rise up and go into the city? Could they in 
this way preserve their lives? No ; it appears not. 
As we have found them saying, " If we sit still here, 
we die ;" so do we also find them declaring, " If we 
say, we will enter into the city, then the famine is in 
the city, and we shall die there" From which we 
would take occasion to remark, 

II. That it is not every kind of doing that will 
secure the sinner from death or ruin. Whilst if the 
unconverted sinner "sits still," interminable ruin 
will overtake him ; yet there are some things he may 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 185 

do, with a desire and design to escape death, and se- 
cure endless life, and yet these things be unavailing. 
Some things may be resorted to, as means to escape 
eternal destruction, which will not secure that end. 
The sinner who is awakened, who is convinced of 
his sins and his danger, is liable to betake himself 
to some improper source for help. There are what 
the scriptures call " refuges of lies ;" and there is a 
wonderful inclination or tendency in the depraved 
human heart to resort, under conviction, to some of 
these. Man's spiritual adversary, the devil, is also 
very busy with his temptations ; very active in his 
attempts to get awakened sinners to have recourse 
to some false refuge, or settle down on some wrong, 
sandy, soul-ruining foundation. Several of the 
senseless observances and absurd ceremonies of the 
Romanists may be ranked among the false and 
deceitful refuges. According to these, sinners are 
set at doing something, doing penance, for instance, 
or making confession before a priest, in order to 
obtain absolution ; or praying to the Virgin Mary, 
and departed saints, or other things as absurd; and 
hoping to obtain heaven by such means. Or, awak- 
ened sinners maybe tempted to lay great stress and 
place much dependence on some dream they have 
had, or some light they may fancy they have seen. 
or some voice they may imagine they have heard. 
Or, they may lop offsome of their old sins, and thus 
commence an outward reformation, and depend on 
16* 



186 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

it for eternal life. They may go to work to weave 
a web, and to make out of it a covering of righteous- 
ness for themselves, and thus attempt to enter heaven 
on the ground of personal merit. Or, they may enter 
on the business of fasting, praying, weeping, and 
place their dependence on these, altogether, for sal- 
vation — and so, by mistake, fail of obtaining pardon, 
or entering into life. We know, reader, what mis- 
takes the Pharisees fell into as to this matter. Paul 
says of them, (Rom. x. 3,) " For they, being ignorant 
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish 
their own righteousness, have not submitted them- 
selves unto the righteousness of God." It is not a 
very uncommon occurrence for awakened sinners, 
in the present age, to fall into a similar mistake. 
Concerning John Bunyan, it is said, that, when he 
was under conviction, he ran for a while into a mis- 
take of this kind. " Hearing a poor but pious man 
speak, one day, with delight of the comfort to be 
derived from religion and the Bible, Bunyan was 
so affected, that he resolved to prove, in some measure 
at least, the occupation which had afforded so much 
joy to the other. He read the scriptures ; lopped 
off his outward vices; and was regarded by himself 
and others as a very religious man." But he was 
destined not long to rest his hopes for eternity on 
the sandy foundation of his own righteousness, it 
seems : for, one day he overheard a number of poor 
women in Bedford in conversation on religious 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 187 

subjects ; the result of which, along with the appear- 
ance of pleasantness and satisfaction in these themes 
which they manifested, was, that he resolved to seek 
further opportunities of hearing their discourse. This 
led to a renunciation of his own schemes as utterly- 
worthless, and a more sound and intelligent view 
of the gospel plan of salvation. In the life of David 
Brainerd, we are informed that that excellent, devoted 
man fell for a time, also, anterior to his true conver- 
sion, into a like mistake. The proud, carnal heart 
of the unregenerate sinner, even when he is awak- 
ened, shows oftentimes a very great reluctance to 
resign all dependence on self; to renounce all self- 
righteousness j and to feel and confess his utter 
impotence, or inability to obtain justification and 
eternal life on the ground of personal deservings ; 
and to cast every thing of this sort at once to the 
winds. 

£{ An Indian and a white man being at worship 
together, were both brought under conviction by the 
same sermon. The Indian was shortly after led to re- 
joice in pardoning mercy. The white man, for a long 
time, was under distress of mind, and at times almost 
ready to despair ; but at length he was also brought 
to a comfortable experience of forgiving love. Some 
time after, meeting his red brother, he thus addressed 
him ; c How is it that J should be so long under con- 
viction, when you found comfort so soon V ' Oh, 
brother,' replied the Indian, c me tell you. There 



188 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

come along a rich prince ; he propose to give you 
a new coat ; you look at your coat and say, ( I don't 
know ; my coat pretty good ; I believe it will do a 
little longer.' He then offer me new coat ; I look 
on my old blanket; I say, this good for nothing; I 
fling it right away, and accept the new coat. Just so, 
brother, you try to keep your own righteousness for 
some time ; you loath to give it up : but I, poor In- 
dian, had none. Therefore I glad at once to receive 
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.' ' ! 

It is an encouraging circumstance when awak- 
ened sinners become so fully, deeply convinced, that 
they have no personal qualities or performances of 
such a character that they can glory in, or depend 
upon them for salvation ; when they become so 
humbled, and so sensible of their helpless and un- 
done condition, as that they will willingly resign or 
renounce every thing of this sort — cast away every- 
thing whatsoever that prevents or operates as a hin- 
derance to their flying as for their lives to the only 
true help or refuge. 

The lepers, being convinced that they must die 
from famine if they enter into the city, no less than 
if they sit still, form a resolution which avails to the 
delivering of them, effectually and at once, from 
danger and threatened death. They say one to 
another, as the result of their deliberations, "Now 
therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the 
Syrians : if they save us alive, we shall live ; and 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 189 

if they kill us, we shall but die." They were shut 
up to this way ; no other was left open to them, if 
they would save their lives. This expedient was 
attended with a favourable result. From which we 
are led to remark, 

III. That sinners should resolve, and, looking" to 
the strong for strength, should carry the resolution at 
once into effect, that they will try to escape endless 
death, and secure eternal life, in that one only way 
which the gospel points out. 

Suppose, dear reader, that throughout the caverns 
of the lost, the sound should be heard — suppose that 
on the ears of the fallen spirits of the pit should for 
the first time fall a voice, making such a proclama- 
tion as this : " Perhaps, perhaps mercy may be found" 
Oh, what a load, what a burden would roll off from 
their bosoms. How would their hearts be lightened 
by such a sound. Despair itself would begin to put 
on a smile ; and the wo-begone spirits would instan- 
taneously feel as if they already were almost out of 
hell. I ask, then, should not fallen men on earth, 
who fully deserve to drink of the wine of God's 
indignation forever, without one drop of ease or 
comfort mixed with it — oh, should not they feel their 
hearts kindling with emotions of joyfulness, if, by 
an accredited messenger from the court of heaven, 
it should be said in their hearing : Perhaps, perhaps 
mercy may be found; perhaps sinners can find pardon 
and peace ; perhaps there is some way in which 



190 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

they can be restored to the favour of a justly offended 
God, and thus escape the awful and unending wrath 
and woe which threaten them? Reader, if per- 
chance you be one whose eyes the scales have so 
far left that you begin to see, and from whose 
heart and conscience, torpor and death are so far 
lifted off, that you begin to feel that you are a great 
sinner before God, so great a sinner that you stand 
amazed that you are not now for your sins in hell 
— I would just say to you, that perhaps you can find 
mercy ; perhaps there can some way be found in 
which you may escape the damnation of hell. In 
running my eye over God's Bible, I think I discover, 
to say the least, some little ground of encouragement 
of this sort for the guilty, trembling, anxious, inquir- 
ing soul ; some little prospect that he may escape 
the death that never dies, and find the life which 
never ends, if — if Let us see. 

In looking over the Book which contains God's 
revelation, I find a brief account of some wonderful 
doings on Calvary. I find that God's blessed and 
only-begotten Son once was there. And on inquir- 
ing for what, for what he was there, I learn that it 
was for sinners, yes, for sinners I And what did 
Jesus, God's blessed Son, do there ? Ah ! I find 
him opening a fountain there, for some purpose. I 
find him there suspended on a tree, a sufferer — oh, 
what a sufferer ! Do you see him on that cross % 

Reader, that death — that death was for the life of 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 191 

certain fallen creatures. Perhaps your case was 
remembered there. And perhaps, if you will now 
go to this once crucified One, go humbled, broken- 
hearted, feeling yourself to be a poor, undone crea- 
ture, that needs help, ay, perishingly needs it ; — 
perhaps, if you will go to Jesus in this way, and 
surrender yourself; throw on him the whole burden 
of your heart ; cast yourself, with all your sins, all 
your guilt and unworthiness, into his arms ; for him 
repudiate every idol — in a word, give up all — I say, 
perhaps, in such case, he will receive and bless you — 
perhaps he then will have mercy on your soul ; take 
off the burden from your conscience ; and save you 
from the everlasting damnation that threatens you, 
and which you cannot say that you do not deserve. 
I know of no other method by which you can escape 
God's burning wrath forever. I cannot find, within 
the lids of the Bible, the least intimation of any 
other way. Guilty, perishing sinner, to what 
danger are you this moment exposed ! Will you 
not resolve, as the only, the last resort, to rush im- 
mediately into the arms of Christ, saying as you go, 
like the lepers at the entering in of the gate of Sa- 
maria, " If he save me alive, I shall live ; and if he 
reject or refuse to have anything to do with me, if 
he cast me off, I shall but die." Sinner, in your 
straitened, perilous condition, will you not new at 
once rise up and go to Jesus, saying to yourself as 
you rush toward him — 



192 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

' ( Perhaps he will admit my plea, 
Perhaps will hear my prayer ; 
But, if I perish, I will pray, 
And perish only there. 
I can but perish if I go j 
I am resolved to try ; 
For if I stay away, I know 
I must forever die." 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 193 



CHAPTER XL 

WHY DIE? 

To die is a serious matter, in what way soever 
you look at it, or in whatever sense you take it. It 
is a serious matter to die even a temporal death ; 
that death which consists in the extinction of animal 
life. No one, however hardened, can look upon a 
fellow creature dying-, without feeling that it is so. 
To behold a human being stretched on that couch 
which he is destined to leave only to be borne to 
the " narrow house ;" to behold that vacant stare as 
his glaring eyeballs are becoming moveless in their 
sockets ; to witness his tossings, his altered counte- 
nance, his heaving bosom, the pains, the groans, the 
dying strife ; and to think, moreover, that here, here 
is the end of him, so far as his earthly career is con- 
cerned ; and the introduction of the more interest- 
ing, the thinking, immaterial part to another and 
changeless state of being — ah, here is something 
solemn in its character indeed ! 

And if solemnity rests about the death-bed of a 
fellow creature ; if, when we look upon the mortal 
conflict of one we love, of a dear relative, for in- 
17 



194 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

stance, around whom cluster the warmest affections 
of our hearts, we cannot keep away from our minds 
the impression that this is solemn work ; oh, how, 
then, when we think of it, must appear as to solem- 
nity, our own personal struggles with the insatiate 
archer ! We know, dear reader, that it is appointed 
unto you and me to fall before him ; that there is 
no keeping of our hearts from his sharp and fatal 
shafts. Such an event, solemn as it is, being un- 
avoidable, it would be but mockery to put to you 
the question, Why will you die this death? 

But, my friend, there is another and far more 
serious and awful death than this. " There is a 
death whose pang outlasts the fleeting breath :•' a 
death eternal. Eternal death ! Ah, this is a phrase 
big with meaning. Can any human tongue tell in 
full what that death is '? To be ever dying — always 
undergoing the struggles and tortures of death ; 
dying through days, years, centuries, eternity ! A 
death in which there is no ceasing to exist and to 
suffer ! What a death ! 

Suffer ? What will the sinner, going into eter- 
nity impenitent and unpardoned, suffer, after his 
natural life closes? Why, he will suffer more than 
eye here hath seen, or ear heard, or heart conceived. 

One thing which may be specified that he will 
suffer, may be thrown under the head of loss. He 
will suffer the loss of all that he here holds dear. 
Man was made by his Creator a social being. He 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 195 

cannot be happy when cut off for any considerable 
time from society. He must have about him those 
whom he loves, and who love him, or be wretched. 
Now, if you enter eternity an unreconciled, unsanc- 
tified creature, no friend, no heart entertaining to- 
ward you the least kind feeling, will you discover 
there. You will be henceforth forever a stranger 
to all domestic and all social sweets. Reader, think 
of it. How sad, horrible, to be where you can en- 
joy none of the pleasures of sympathy, friendship j 
no interchange of kind, tender, glowing thought 
and feeling; — to be where, what way soever you 
look, whether upward toward heaven, or around 
you in the lake that burnetii with fire, your eye can 
light on none but such as are hostile to you, and 
wishing the continuance and increase of your tor- 
ment. 

You will experience, likewise, the privation of 
all that here yields pleasure to the eye, or music to 
the ear, or gratification to the taste, or any other of 
the senses. Have you possessed wealth, or any 
amount of worldly substance, while on earth? It 
is left behind. Did you secure the wreath of 
honour, the laurels of distinction ? These you 
carry not with you to your everlasting abode. 
Have you loved either, idolatrously ? Your idol 
leaves you when you journey hence. All "your 
good things" you have, exclusively, in this hand- 
breadth portion of your existence. If any suffering 



196 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

can arise from want, then of suffering will you be 
the victim, for, in common with u the rich man," 
you will want " a drop of water," in the pit to which 
you will descend upon your departure from this 
world. 

In the place of lost spirits, you will have appetites, 
but they will be doomed to remain unsatisfied ; you 
will feel the cravings of passion and desire, but these 
will continue unrelieved. They, severally, will 
burn and rage, and cry perpetually for gratification, 
but will find none. Such a sentiment as this last, 
was not absent from the mind of the ancient heathen 
poets — who represented Tantalus as punished in 
hell with an insatiable thirst, and placed up to the 
chin in the midst of a pool of water, which, how- 
ever, flows away as soon as he attempts to taste it. 
There hangs also above his head, a bough, richly 
loaded with delicious fruits ; which, as soon as he 
attempts to seize, is carried away from his reach by 
a sudden blast of wind. According to some mytho- 
logists, his punishment is to sit under a huge stone, 
hung at some distance over his head, and as it 
seems every moment ready to fall, he is kept under 
continual alarms, and never-ceasing fears. 

Dying unconverted, you will suffer the loss of all 
hope. Hope, that benign principle which buoys up 
the spirits here, in the darkest, saddest hoars, will 
never visit the dismal caverns of the lost. When 
pangs most intense are felt ; when wailings most 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 197 

awful are uttered ; when the undying worm is 
gnawing and gnawing at the heart ; and the 
quenchless fires are raging and tormenting to the 
uttermost ; the lost spirits in perdition will derive 
no alleviation from the hope that their condition 
will be ever any better. Despair, despair is one 
ingredient in that terrible cup of which the wicked 
will drink unceasingly. 

The soul in every faculty, and, after the resur- 
rection, the body in every member, will be in a 
state indescribably unhappy. 

Especially, how troubled and how troublesome 
will be the conscience of the poor sinner, after this 
life. O, the stings and lashes of a guilty conscience ! 
Even in this world they are sometimes greater than 
% man can bear. Have you never had your atten- 
tion particularly drawn to the workings of a man's 
conscience under a sense of guilt? — How, even in 
the case of a convicted sinner, sleep has been, for 
days and nights together, chased away from the 
eyes, and slumber from the eyelids ? — And how, 
sometimes, he seems almost unable to live, under 
the heavy load which is pressing him down ? But 
if such be sometimes the gnawings and lashes of 
a guilty conscience while here, oh, what must be 
the sufferings which that power will inflict on the 
guilty creature in eternity ; when all his sins, in all 
their enormity, or with their several aggravations, 
will be set in order before his eyes. O sinner, sin- 
17* 



198 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

ner, if you die unreconciled to God, — if you pass 
into the unseen world unsprinkled by the blood of 
Immanuel, that conscience which you have, will 
sting and scourge you, causing agonies in intensity 
such as you have never yet felt, and have no con- 
ception of. 

But, above all, will the unpardoned sinner in 
eternity be subjected to the direct operation of infi- 
nite wrath — to the scathing, withering fury of a 
justly incensed God. On the fiery billows of the 
Almighty's indignation will his guilty soul be 
tossed, " forever, oh, forever lost !" Omnipotent 
wrath — think of the effects which must flow from 
it, when it is brought to bear, in the world of retri- 
bution, against the ungodly. The wicked are 
threatened with the punishment of fire. God's 
word tells us that they shall be cast into a furnace 
of fire ; a lake of fire and brimstone ; the fire pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels. No illustration 
is needed of the power of fire to distress and destroy. 
The body, exposed to its operation, is thrown instan- 
taneously into intolerable agony. How horrible to 
endure the pain of a fiery furnace for a few moments! 
How overcoming the thought of enduring it for a 
long season ! 

And how long a season are the sufferings of the 
wicked to continue 1 We have assumed, in some 
parts of this and preceding chapters, the eternal 
duration of them. I know there are those who 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 199 

deny the doctrine of eternal punishment; yes, and 
those, too, who deny that the wicked are punished 
at all after this life. It appears to me that such are 
much in error on this point. I do not know how 
the doctrine of eternal punishment could he more 
plainly taught than it is in our sacred Book. He 
who is to be our Judge, has told us that on the day 
of judgment he will say to the wicked, " Depart, ye 
cursed, into everlasting fire." And of the same 
class he says, just after, " These shall go away into 
everlasting punishment." An inspired apostle, 
speaking likewise of the same class, has said, 
" Who shall be punished with everlasting destruc- 
tion from the presence of the Lord, and from the 
glory of his power." It is also elsewhere said of 
them, " The smoke of their torment ascendeth up 
forever and ever ;" — " for whom is reserved the 
blackness of darkness forever.'' 1 It will not do here 
to say that such proof as this just adduced, is not 
conclusive, since the terms "everlasting," and "for 
ever," are sometimes used in the scriptures where 
they cannot possibly mean absolutely without end. 
We assert, without fear of contradiction, that these 
terms do, in their original and proper sense, denote 
duration without limit. And, when applied to things 
which in their nature are capable ef endless dura- 
tion, and when there is nothing in the connection 
to limit their meaning, we are bound to understand 
them in their unlimited sense. On this principle, 



200 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

these terms denote endless duration when applied 
to God ; to the continuance of his kingdom ; to the 
future happiness of the righteous ; and the future 
punishment of the wicked. We remark, in the next 
place, that Jesus and his apostles would have been 
misunderstood by the Jews of their time, unless, in 
such passages as those we have quoted, they had 
meant to teach the absolute eternity of the punish- 
ment of the wicked ; for this doctrine was held by 
all of them except the small sect of the Sadducees, 
who denied the immortality of the human soul, and 
of course that any of mankind were either happy or 
miserable after death. Another thing which is 
worthy of observation is, that in the scriptures, the 
w T ord "everlasting" is applied to the future happi- 
ness of the righteous, and the future misery of the 
wicked in the same connection — witness Mat. xxv. 
46, where the same term in the original is used in 
reference to the one and the other. In the sacred 
scriptures, the absolutely endless duration of the 
happiness of the former is no more clearly or fully 
taught, than is the absolute eternity of the misery of 
the latter. 

We will here occupy no more room on this topic 
than that which it will take to remark, in addition, 
that the doctrine of the endless punishment of the 
wicked is taught by implication in every part of the 
Old and New Testaments. 

Thus, my dear reader, have we endeavoured to 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 201 

set before you the nature and duration of those 
sufferings which are included in that comprehensive 
expression, Eternal Death. 

As affecting as is the thought, to such a death 
you, as au impenitent sinner, are exposed. With 
such a death are you actually threatened by the 
holy but broken law of God. Yet — hear it — yet, 
from such a tremendous death there being a possi- 
bility of escape, in a certain way, as I have been 
informed — it is my desire and purpose, in the re- 
mainder of this chapter, affectionately and tenderly 
to press you with the question, Why will you die? 
— Why die so awful and everduring a death ? 

Is it, reader, because you are involved in deepest 
darkness in reference to the existence and character 
of the true God? or concerning the relations he 
sustains to you as your Creator, Preserver, Law- 
giver, Sovereign Ruler, and kind Father? Surely 
you were not born and reared on the wastes of 
Paganism. You have not been located, all your 
past life, where no light has been suffered to beam 
forth upon you but the faint glimmerings of nature. 
If called to stand before the bar of the Infinite Judge 
in your sins, you will not be able there to plead that 
your lot was cast in a land where the bright sun of 
revelation never cast a solitary ray upon you. You 
will not be able to say, before the judgment-seat of 
Christ, " Lord, I never, while on earth, saw or heard 
of a Bible; never heard of that holy Book that re- 



202 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

veals thy character." No ; the sacred scriptures 
you have, and in a language too that you under- 
stand; and from early life you have been capable 
of reading those scriptures, and of learning from that 
source what sort of a Being the true God is ; with 
what excellencies he is invested ; what are the rela- 
tions which he sustains to you, and you to him ; 
how worthy he is in himself of your highest esteem ; 
how reasonable it is that you should give him the 
warmest and the undivided affections of your heart. 
You have learned from the Book of books that you, 
as the creature, are the property of God ; that to him 
you are indebted for all that you have and are, sin 
only excepted ; that from him you derive that air 
which keeps your lungs in motion, that food which 
sustains, that apparel which warms, those comforts 
and mercies which cheer you, and which sweeten 
your earthly condition. And having learned so 
much concerning him, and especially his goodness, 
and your indebtedness, should not your heart be 
melted into contrition, won to him, and thus you 
have averted from you what the law threatens? 

Why will you die? You cannot plead that you 
have not been made acquainted with God' s* requi- 
sitions, or that you have not the means of ascertain- 
ing the Divine will and your duty. That holy 
Book that has been put into your hands, testifies to 
the contrary. By means of it, the Deity has told, 
and is constantly telling you, both what he would 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 203 

have you do and avoid. He there, moreover, lets 
you know what consequences will be visited upon 
the persevering and unrelenting transgressor. It 
may be said of you, that you have broken God's 
precepts, his precepts of the New Testament as well 
as of the Old, his evangelical precepts as well as the 
rest, knowing at the very time you were engaged 
in so doing, that you were thereby exposing your- 
self to endless death. Oh, how justly, how justly 
may you be made a sufferer in the infernal abyss, 
seeing that you are so stoutly, obstinately bent on 
running counter to Heaven's expressed will, that in 
the very face of the Lord's denunciations, you will 
persist in a course so displeasing to him. You are 
told that you must die, if you do this or that thing ; 
that you must die forever ; and this sound of threat- 
ening is rung in your ears constantly ; and yet you 
as constantly are engaged in doing what exposes 
you to the infliction of what is threatened. 

Reader, Why will you die ? It is not because 
for sinners like you and me, the Most High has not 
opened a door of mercy, or provided a way of escape 
from impending ruin. God has not left the rebels 
of earth as he left those of a higher order that re- 
belled. Your ears and mine have heard of certain 
amazing doings ; have heard that Jehovah let his 
own infinitely dear Son go from his bosom to become 
a man, and iL a man of sorrows" too — to become very 
poor, very much despised, reviled, persecuted ; to be 



204 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

nunted after as a wild beast ; to endure, especially 
on two spots which you have read of, one a garden 
and the other a mount, what no mortal tongue can 
tell, and for a most benevolent purpose. If you die, 
it is not because you have not heard of a certain 
personage called Jesus Christ, and of what he has 
undergone to procure the salvation of the perishing. 
You have often heard of him who let his own heart's 
blood flow out to form and fill a fountain that sin- 
ners might lave their guilty and polluted spirits in. 
If you rush into eternity a filthy creature, it will 
not be because you have not heard of this u foun- 
tain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's 
veins." If you gnash your teeth forever, ah, will 
it not be because you have trodden under foot the 
crucified Son of God 1 

Why, sinner, will you die? Can you say that 
any of the Lord's commands or claims are unrea- 
sonable ? I know that God's claims are quite ex- 
tensive. I am aware that he requires that you should 
love him with all the heart, and soul, and mind, 
and strength ; but I must learn that he is less ex- 
cellent than the scriptures have represented him to 
be, and than I have been accustomed to think him, 
before I can believe this requirement unreasonable. 
It seems to me, also, that you should be very back- 
ward about complaining of the unreasonableness of 
such a requirement, until you can ascertain that he 
has not treated you kindly. I have the opinion that 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 205 

he has been very benevolent and long-sufTermg to 
you. I have seen him bearing with your sins and 
great provocations for quite a season. You are 
alive, yet you have not deserved to live one of the 
many days which the Almighty has spared you. 
Had you been dealt with as you might justly have 
been, this earth would have been caused to cast you 
off, long since, from its bosom, and your soul have 
been consigned to the prison of despair. You ought 
to love God much, for the sparing mercy which he 
has shown to you. And the thing which the Su- 
preme Being demands of you, is to repent — to grieve 
for, to hate, and to abandon your evil ways. Is this 
demand unreasonable? You dare not say that it 
is. Jehovah commands you to open your arms and 
cordially receive and confide in his beloved Son ; to 
flee from the wrath to come, by fleeing to the cross. 
Is this unreasonable ? Why, no ; you know it is 
not. Our Divine Master calls on us to take upon 
us his yoke, to deny ourselves, and follow him. 
Have we any good reason to complain of this? 
Lovely Jesus, would that this reader and every other 
poor sinner might bow their necks to thy easy yoke, 
and put their feet in thy foot-prints. 

My impenitent friend, Why will you die? Is 
eternal death so slight an evil that it should seem 
to you not worth while to make any great effort to 
escape it ? What ! eternal death an inconsiderable, 
trivial evil ? The wicked, who are now in the place 
18 



206 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

of lost spirits, do not think so. The rich man who 
went down there, and lifted up his eyes being in 
torment, and called on father Abraham to send 
Lazarus, that he might dip the tip of his finger in 
water and cool his tongue, for " I am tormented," 
said he, u in this flame," he did not think so. Nor 
will you, my dying, unsanetified reader, if you at 
length go down and writhe where the rich man did, 
think so. That death is nowhere in the sacred 
scriptures represented as other than a most tremen- 
dous evil. Ah, friend, it is quite too great and 
fearful an evil for us to remain unmoved in view 
of. Reason, wisdom, everything that savours in the 
least of either, urgently calls upon every unforgiven 
creature to make immediate and most earnest efforts 
to avoid such a death. 

Nor is the opposite of this, to wit, eternal life, so 
unimportant a matter, that you can reasonably 
neglect seeking after it. Eternal life ! everlasting 
enjoyment of God ! the endless glories, and un- 
withering bliss of heaven ! this unworthy to be 
sought after? What creature can be so infatuated 
as to think so? 

Why will you die? You know that if you do 
die, it is not because of not having been the subject 
of warning, invitation, and entreaty. You have 
been often warned— have repeatedly been called 
of God to turn from your sins, and seek salvation. 
Have you never been cast on a bed of sickness? 



FOR THE 131 PENITENT. 207 

If you have, did not the Lord call you then? 
Have you never lost any near and dear relative by 
death 1 And were you not warned and called then? 
Look into a certain grave-yard. Perhaps the mor- 
tal remains of some beloved friend repose there. 
Ah, what does that grave, and that sleeping, decay- 
ing body whisper to you ? Do they not say, u Set 
your house in order ; prepare to meet God ?" You 
have experienced trials of other kinds, have you 
not? What is the language of them? Were they 
sent for naught? Do they mean nothing? Have 
they no tongue? Do they utter no warning? 

Why will you die ? Have you never been in- 
formed that you are a sinner ? Have your iniqui- 
ties never been charged home upon you? Have 
you never been called on to return to God? Have 
you never been entreated to flee from the wrath to 
come ? Have you never been urged to rush into 
the outstretched arms of infinite mercy and love? 
Has no Christian minister's voice, beseeching you 
to be reconciled to God, ever fallen upon your ears? 
Have you never been expostulated with by some 
kind christian relative? Has no pious friend or 
acquaintance ever given you any evidence that 
he desired your welfare, deeply cared for your soul? 
But why need I put to you such questions as these ? 
You know that your soul's happiness has been a 
matter of desire on the part of the pious. You know 
that you have been often called, and invited to come 



208 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

to Christ ; often besought to forsake your sins, and 
prepare to die. Your Bible testifies that such is the 
fact. Some living minister or christian friend can, 
no doubt, testify that such is the fact. Your own 
memory testifies that such is the fact. 

Why, unconverted reader, will you die? Has 
your conscience always been asleep? Has it never 
spoken either in a loud tone or in a whisper, and 
told you that you were doing wrong in forgetting 
God, and neglecting your duty? — wrong in not 
casting yourself on Jesus, and preparing to dwell 
in his magnificent and beautiful palace forever? 
Ah, your conscience, as sleepy as it has frequently 
been, as unfaithful a monitor as you have oft found 
it, has nevertheless, I will venture to say, repeatedly 
afforded proof that it had not given up the ghost, 
nor lost wholly the power of speech. Not seldom, 
in your past life, has it checked, remonstrated with, 
reproved you. And oh, that conscience will be far 
more talkative and troublesome hereafter, it may 
be, than it is now, or ever has been. If you die 
unsprinkled by the atoning blood of Jesus, that 
power will be an indescribably great tormentor to 
you in the abyss of woe. Oh, how it will make 
you writhe, and shriek, and wail, and cause your 
loud cries to resound forever through the dark, deep, 
doleful caverns of the pit. 

Why will you die, poor sinner? Did the Holy 
Spirit never call, woo, strive with you ? Oh, is not 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 209 

that Divine and infinitely compassionate Agent 
striving with you now? Is he not telling you that 
you are a sinner ; and urging you to turn from 
your evil ways to God, and lead a new life? 

11 Say, sinner, hath a voice within 
Oft whisper'd to thy secret soul, 
Uig'd thee to leave the ways of sin, 
And yield thy heart to God's control 1 

" Hath something met thee in the path 
Of worldliness and vanity, 
And pointed to the coming wrath, 

And warned thee from that wrath to flee 1 

" Sinner, it was a heav'nly voice, 
It was the Spirit's gracious call, 
It bade thee make the better choice, 
And haste to seek in Christ thine all. 

11 Spurn not the call to life and light; 
Regard in time the warning kind; 
That call thou may'st not always slight. 
And yet the gate of mercy find. 

11 God's Spirit will not always strive 
With harden'd, self-destroying man ; 
Ye, who persist his love to grieve, 
May never hear his voice again. 

' Sinner, perhaps this very day 
Thy last accepted time may be ; 
Oh, shouldst thou grieve him now away, 
Then hope may never beam on thee." 

Let me ask you again, Why will you die? Ah, 

18* 



210 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

perhaps you are saying to }<ourself, What will my 
careless companions and unconverted acquaintances 
think of me, should I become serious or pious? 
Why, my dear friend, they cannot with propriety 
think any the less of you for it. They will have 
no good reason for disesteeming you, should you 
cease to be an enemy of God. It seems to me that 
they ought to think the better of you for ceasing 
to do evil, and learning to do well. It appears to 
me as though they ought to think you were begin- 
ning to come to your right mind in resolving to 
provoke no longer the wrath of the Almighty ; to 
persist no longer in doing what will forever ruin 
your immortal soul. But supposing that they should 
be so silly and mad as to think otherwise, why, 
what great matter is it to you, I ask, what they may 
think ? They are poor, dying worms of the dust 
like yourself — hastening rapidly, like yourself, to- 
ward death and the bar of God. They will soon 
be in eternity as well as you. If you should listen 
to, and, to please them, should go in the way of sin 
with them, they cannot answer for you at the bar 
of God, nor suffer for you in the abyss of despair. 
You will have to answer, and, if you die an un- 
pardoned creature, will have to suffer for your own 
sins. They cannot help you in a dying hour, nor 
at the judgment-seat of Christ, nor in eternity. Do 
not, then, listen to them, if they would dissuade 
you from seeking the salvation of your soul. Do 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 211 

as Bunyan's pilgrim did : put your ringers in your 
ears, that you may not hear them ; and run, crying, 
"Life! life! eternal life!" 

Why will you die ? Does God take pleasure in 
the death of the wicked ? Would he rather that 
you should die than live? and in order to please 
him, will you therefore go and die? That will 
not be pleasing him. Hear his language : "As I 
live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from 
his way and live." If you would please God, turn 
and have life. 

Why will you die, reader? Are you tempted 
by your own wicked heart, and by the arch-adver- 
sary, to put off all concern about your eternal wel- 
fare ? And are you going to yield yourself up to 
temptation, and thus float down the stream of time 
till you land in everlasting despair? If you do, 
blame nobody but yourself for it. If you will perish, 
why, I cannot help it. 

But, perhaps, you are entertaining the idea that 
you are willing to turn, but that Christ is not willing 
to receive you. Why this is not so, my dear friend. 
So far from being willing to turn and receive Christ, 
you are now voluntarily staying away from, or re- 
jecting the Saviour ; voluntarily refusing to yield 
your heart to him. You are at this moment, of your 
own free will, rejecting offered mercy. You are 
keeping the door of your heart closed against the 



212 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

Friend of sinners, and his salvation. It is so, whether 
you think it or not. Poor, perishing sinner, open 
the door and let the King of grace enter. Do not 
any longer refuse him admittance. 

Yes, reader, living in this land of light and privi- 
lege, if you perish forever, may I not say that it will 
be because you " ivill not come to Christ, that you 
might have life ?" And, oh, how aggravated will 
be your doom in eternity; how doubly miserable 
among the miserable ; how doubly dammed among 
lost spirits, after such repeated calls and warnings j 
after so many warm invitations and pressing entrea- 
ties to fly to the only true refuge. Yes, reader, if you 
are lost everlastingly, you will remember, when 
tossing on the burning billows, that you, time after 
time, had forgiving mercy offered you. and eternal 
life through the blood of the cross, and that you 
would not have it. And this perpetual remembrance 
of a Saviour rejected, and of rejected offers, will 
make the cup of bitterness, of which you will drink, 
tenfold more bitter ; will cause the fire, which never 
shall be quenched, to be tenfold more tormenting. 
Sinner, turn, turn from your evil ways, and receive 
and follow Christ. Then shall you live, and not 
die. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 213 



CHAPTER XII. 

PROCRASTINATION. 

There is a spirit, both very common and very- 
dangerous, which not seldom exhibits itself, when 
the claims, the duties, the interests, and immunities 
of the religion of Jesus are presented, and pressed 
on the attention : we mean, reader, the spirit of 
procrastination. Few in christian lands, in propor- 
tion to the whole number, have come to the wild 
and dreadful conclusion, that the religion of Christ 
is all a farce, or but an ingeniously fabricated im- 
posture. Most of those on whom the bright sun of 
revelation casts its beams, are ready to acknowledge 
its truth, the merit of its claims to their regard ; that 
its statements are not mere idle tales ; nor its proffers 
and its promises hollow and delusive. Nearly the 
whole of that number, we presume, who hear the 
proclamations of that mercy which the gospel reveals, 
have at least a vague and half-formed determination, 
that they will avail themselves of its provisions, at 
one time or another, before their bodies sink into 
the grave, and their spirits wing their way to an 
unknown region. But few comparatively, of that 



214 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

number, appear to make up their mind to accept at 
once of Heaven's saving mercy, and to become with- 
out delay the true and devoted followers of the King 
of saints. Of all the recruiting officers which the 
Prince of Darkness sends to and fro among this 
world's population, to obtain recruits for his woful 
Tartarean dominions, there is no one besides, pro- 
bably, which proves half so successful as does this 
Serjeant Procrastination. The multitude of travel- 
lers in the broad way to ruin, have each his " con- 
venient season," lying away off in the future. 
When plied with the overtures and entreaties of 
the gospel, you may hear one and all of them, some 
in louder and some in lower tones, saying, ;: Not 
now — not convenient now. 11 At the sound the Devil 
laughs, and Hell rejoices. 

We have the record of a memorable exhibition 
of this delaying spirit in the 24th chapter of the 
Acts of the Apostles. Felix, a Roman, and governor 
of the province of Palestine, was living in inconti- 
nence and adultery with Drusilla, the daughter of 
Herod Agrippa the elder, who had been given in 
marriage to Azizus, king of Emesa, but was per- 
suaded by Felix to desert her husband, and live 
incontinently with himself. He appears, also, like 
many others of the Roman governors in the pro- 
vinces, to have been an avaricious and rapacious 
man. Before this unrighteous and incontinent 
governor, and his guilty paramour, Drusilla, whose 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 215 

residence was at Cesarea, Paul, who through the 
malice of the Jews was now a prisoner there, " rea- 
soned of righteousness," or justice ; "of temperance,'* 
or a keeping in due subjection the appetites and pas- 
sions; and directed their attention to a "judgment to 
come," when for their misdeeds, their violations of 
the rules of justice and of purity, they would be strict- 
ly reckoned with ; and the apostle reasoned with 
such clearness and with such power that the Roman 
governor's conscience was touched, and so thoroughly 
aroused and deeply pierced was it, that lo! before the 
prisoner : the judge trembles. Behold him! Witness 
the lion trembling before the lamb ! In this pre- 
dicament, what does this guilty governor and judge 
do? Does he, now that the deep-toned thunders 
of God are rolling over his conscience — does he say 
to Paul, as did the Philippian jailer, " Sir, what must 
I do to be saved?" Does he take that conscience, 
awakened, wounded, bruised, lacerated, to the Great 
Physician, the Prince of Peace, the alone true Paci- 
fier of guilty consciences, and healer of broken hearts? 
Oh, had he done this, what an unspeakable blessing 
would it have proved to Felix, that he had ever had 
such a prisoner to stand before him ! Instead of this, 
he has recourse to a very different expedient. He 
seeks to obtain ease to his stung and lashed spirit, 
by dismissing, for the present, from his presence, 
the faithful christian reasoner — under the plausible 
pretext that he could not now, but might and ex- 



216 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

pected hereafter to find it convenient farther to listen 
to him. " Go thy way," said he, " for this time ; 
when I have a convenient season, I will call for 
thee." 

Poor man ! we never hear anything more about 
his u convenient season" It seems probable that, 
unannoyed by conscience, undisturbed by convic- 
tions, he passed off the stage without ever finding 
it, and without any solicitude concerning a prepa- 
ration to meet at length without dismay the Divine 
Judge. 

Oh, it is a mournful, dangerous thing to hush the 
alarms of conscience, and to return to a state of 
carelessness and of slumbers, after having been 
awakened, or aroused, in any measure from the 
stupor of sin. 1 have seen, have been myself a 
witness to some of the dire effects of stifling convic- 
tion, and of grieving the Spirit of God. I have 
observed in instances not a few, what entire torpidity 
of conscience has succeeded a period of spiritual 
alarm, — what unmoved and immovable apathy the 
soul has often sunk down into, after having been 
* awakened in a measure from the slumbers of ini- 
quity, and after having been led to utter the inquiry 
of the young ruler, " What shall I do to inherit 
eternal life ?" Successive to a grieving away of the 
Spirit of God, I have marked what a deep sleep has 
come over the spirit of the sinner, and from which 
he was not afterward awaked by all the thunders 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 217 

of the artillery of heaven. Oh, how thrice doleful 
a condition is the poor sinner in. who, after having 
been deeply convicted of sin, returns to his worse 
than former carelessness, and concerning whom, 
after such a slighting of his mercy, it pleases God 
to say, "He is joined unto idols; let him alone." 
Jehovah has said that his spirit shall not always 
strive with man. Nor ought we to wonder at this, 
Rather should it excite wonder in our minds, that 
God bears as long as he does with the sinner's set- 
ting at naught of.his merciful overtures. 

The part of Felix, in stifling conviction, throwing 
off alarm, and postponing repentance, and a setting 
of the house in order for a visit from the pale mes- 
senger, has been acted over and over again by hun- 
dreds and thousands in every age, from his day 
down to the present. At this day, we can go no- 
where without finding a greater or less number, 
who are indulging the procrastinating spirit which 
the Roman governor manifested, and saying to all 
urgency or entreaty, whether of the christian or the 
christian's God, " Go thy way for this time : when 
I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." 

If, from any delaying sinner who reads this 
chapter, I could, with the aid of God's spirit and 
grace, succeed in removing this flattering unction, 
and tearing away this delusive spirit and hope — if 
I could set before him in so clear, and forcible, and 
commanding a light as to be influential, the crimi- 
19 



218 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

nality, folly, and danger attending a postponement 
of those concerns which pertain to the soul's salva- 
tion, and the duty and importance of listening at 
once, without the hast delay, to Heaven's calls, and 
of now, even on this day, accepting of Heaven's 
overtures of mercy and forgiveness, I would rejoice ; 
and along with me would rejoice the ministering 
spirits of glory. Spirit of power, deign to assist 
me ; and to this reader apply the word. 

Allow me, my dear delaying friend, to present 
some arguments in favour of an immediate dedica- 
tion of yourself to God and his service ; some rea- 
sons why you should without delay hear Christ's 
voice, and accept of the tenders of reconciliation. 

1. The first reason which we would offer in 
favour of such a course, is derived from the con- 
sideration of the immense value of religion ; of the 
vast, unspeakable importance of the soul's eternal 
salvation. 

You must allow it to be the dictate of reason 
itself, to seek first after those things which are the 
most valuable ; to attend first to those concerns to 
which the greatest importance should be attached. 

All on earth is fading and transient. The leaf 
withers, the blossoms perish, and the flowers decay. 
All earthly good, how evanescent ! all sublunary 
interests, how soon must be buried in oblivion, or 
pass away ! This clayey structure, reared around 
the soul, must soon tumble into ruins ; and all that 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 219 

the world calls good or great, all save that which 
is of celestial mould, must soon be as though it had 
never been. But the case is otherwise with the 
soul of man. Cast your eye forward into the future. 
You may see yonder sun blotted out, or its bright- 
ness shrouded in eternal night. These blue heavens 
above us, and this green earth on which we tread, 
may flit away, leaving not a wreck behind. And 
you may travel onward with your mind's eye, mil- 
lions and millions of ages farther into the vast futu- 
rity of duration ; and onward and still onward, 
millions heaped on millions, and ten thousand mil- 
lions multiplied by ten thousand millions of ages 
still j and inquire away off there, in that far distant 
future, about the soul of man, and you will find that 
soul to be even then but in the infancy of its being j 
you will find it to have but just stepped on the mere 
threshold of existence. 

And can the interests of such a soul, thus un- 
withering in being, be unimportant, think you ? 
Do not all the interests simply of time and earth, 
when compared with the former, appear as the 
small dust of the balance, or rather as less than 
nothing and vanity 1 May these interests be reason- 
ably slighted or overlooked ? May they be thrown 
into the background, until we attend first to the 
straws and bubbles of the world ; until ^e can find 
"a convenient season" to attend to those concerns 
which are of such infinite and eternal consequence ? 



223 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

What ! cast off to a distance pearls, and attend to 
playthings? What! let go a kingdom, an unfail- 
ing, glorious kingdom, and attend to our molehill ? 
First, our molehill and toys — afterwards, when we 
may find a convenient season, attend peradventure 
to the pearls and the kingdom? Jesus Christ said, 
li One thing," by way of eminence, " one thing is 
needful." But man, in his wisdom, his folly rather, 
puts all other things before the one thing spoken of 
by the Saviour. What an unreasonable placing of 
things last which should be first. What a running 
counter to the dictates of true reason, and to the 
benevolent directions and counsels of unerring wis- 
dom. Oh, did the comparative value of things 
temporal and things eternal strike our minds now, 
as they will in a dying day, how different would 
be our estimate and our preference ; and that esti- 
mate and preference expressed, too, both with our 
lips and in our conduct. 

u A person, not many years since deceased, and 
who possessed a speculative acquaintance with divine 
truth, had, by unremitting industry, and carefully 
watching every opportunity of increasing his wealth, 
accumulated the sum of twenty-five thousand pounds 
sterling. But alas! as is too common, he became 
engrossed anal entangled with the world, and to its 
acquisitionjie appears to have sacrificed infinitely 
higher interests. A dangerous sickness, that brought 
death near to his view, awakened his fears. Con- 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 221 

science reminded him of his neglect of eternal con- 
cerns, and filled him with awful forebodings of 
future misery. A little before he expired, he was 
heard to say : i My possessions amount to twenty- 
five thousand pounds. One half of this my property 
I would give, so that I might live one fortnight 
longer, to repent and seek salvation ; and the other 
half to my dear and only son.' " 

The religion of Christ, my reader, does not demand 
a laying aside of the business of the world. It does 
not require an inattention to the concerns of time. 
But it does demand that we should not make of 
this world an idol. It does require that we should 
u seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteous- 
ness." 

2. And this leads us to remark, secondly, that 
duty and our own highest comfort here below, both 
demand from us a repudiation of the procrastinating 
spirit, and an immediate surrender of the heart to 
Christ. 

It would apparently require but a small measure 
either of attention or discernment, to discover that 
it is " man's chief end to glorify God, and enjoy 
him forever." The scriptures, in the most direct 
manner, call upon us to glorify the great Author of 
our being with our body and our spirit. In turning 
over the pages of that volume which Jehovah has 
given to be a lamp to our feet and a light unto our 
path, we can nowhere find it said, First serve sin 
19* 



222 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

and Satan, and afterward, when you may have " a 
convenient season," then serve God your Maker. 
No ; we can nowhere, within the lids of the Bible, 
discover the least shadow of a sanction given to 
such a procedure. We do, it is true, find it said, 
in one place, " Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, 
and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, 
and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight 
of thine eyes." But it will not be difficult to affix 
a proper meaning to these words, if we will but 
read what follows : " but know thou, that for all 
these things God shall bring thee into judgment" 
If there was any prospect of our finding, away 
off toward the end of our life, that fancied convenient 
season ; if, after being unable to indulge sense and 
sin any longer, we should at last offer to God the 
dregs of our earthly existence — would this be enough 
for God ? Would this be treating our Creator, him 
in whom we live, and move, and have our being, 
as he ought to be treated? Supposing we should 
offer, as a sacrifice to God, the blind, the lame, and 
the sick ; will he be perfectly satisfied with our 
offering, think you, and say, " It will do ; it is 
enough?" And is it generous in us to treat God 
thus? After all that in his infinite kindness and 
compassion he has done, and is still doing for us, is 
it generous, I repeat, in us to cast unto the Lord 
naught but the ragged, rotten remnant of our time, 
and of our broken-down and exhausted powers? 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 223 

If there is one spark of generosity in our hearts, 
can we put him off thus ? No, reader, we should 
not be at all satisfied with ourselves, or with our 
conduct, unless we serve God with our whole life, 
and the undivided energy of all our powers. 

If we would consult, moreover, our own true 
present comfort ; if we would secure to ourselves 
or enjoy the greatest amount of happiness which is 
to be found on earth, or in this life, we must without 
delay renounce sin and the world as a portion, and 
give our hearts to God. 

It is a truth, reader, and we may see it to be so, 
all the world over, that " the way of transgressors 
is hard." Go where you will, wherever you find, 
the tree of sin, you will find that tree bearing bitter 
fruit. It is indeed the case that some of the fruit of 
that tree, occasionally, when in the mouth, tastes 
pleasant. But only let it be swallowed, and it will 
invariably be found bitter. God has said — and he 
knows all about it ; he knows all the springs which 
yield sweet waters ; knows from what flows true 
pleasure and comfort — God has said of wisdom, 
which is here but another name for religion, that 
iC Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her 
paths are peace." I know that it is not at all un- 
common to come across human creatures who think 
very differently on this subject from what God does^ 
I know that the unconverted are apt to think that 
religion — oh, they are frightened at the very name 



224 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

— that religion takes away pleasure or comfort ; that 
it pours, drains out of the cup of life, all its sweet- 
ness, and puts other, and very different ingredients 
in its room. But I will not believe the opinion of 
the unconverted, on this point, to be correct, until — 
with reverence be it spoken — until I find God's 
veracity questionable, and christian experience to 
be false. What ! the favour of God do such mischief 
amongst the flowers and fruits of the garden of true 
pleasure ? What! the favour of the supremely great 
and good, and Holy One, blast true joys, imbitter 
innocent and pure sweets, and spread over the pil- 
grimage of life the gloom of night, and over this 
earthly abode a covering of sackcloth ? No ; it is 
not the favour of God, but the displeasure and wrath 
of the Almighty which produce effects to be dreaded. 
The religion of Christ, it is true, forbids unreason* 
able indulgence and sinful excesses ; but such indul- 
gence and excesses bring along with them, sooner 
or later, and commonly very soon, not pleasure but 
pain, not joy but sorrow. 

The true sweets of life are rendered by religion 
still sweeter. For the pure and unalloyed pleasures 
of earth it gives a higher zest, a keener relish. It 
gives to the fond ties of kindred and relationship 
still more strength, and elevation, and endearment. 
It gives to the innocencies of life still more inno- 
cence. It makes what is " pure, and lovely, and of 
good report," still more excellent and lovely. It 



FOX THE IMPENITENT. 225 

refines the delicacies and refinements of earth ; and 
what is noble, and dignified, and sublime, it still 
heightens. At the feet of religion, pleasure's clear, 
limpid waters glide softly and sweetly. She draws 
her hand over the brow of care, and its wrinkles 
vanish. She speaks, and clouds dark and lower- 
ing, and dangers threatening and thick, flee away 
at her bidding. The raging w^inds and roaring 
tempests are hushed at her word into unwhispering 
stillness ; the tossing billows sink into a calm ; and 
hope, and joy, and fond anticipation tinge the cheek, 
and light up a smile on the countenance of death. 
The christian pilgrim, through her influence, pur- 
sues his journey toward the land of spirits without 
fainting ; goes forward toward the dark valley with 
unflinching firmness ; and meets the vicissitudes 
and trials attendant on his earthly pilgrimage with 
unruffled and heaven-born composure. 

"His hand the good man fastens on the skies, 
And bids earth roll, nor feels her idle whirl/' 

The pious and devout man, adoring the ever 
present Deity, resting on his arm, and breathing a 
celestial spirit, may indeed be said to be the only 
really happy and enviable mortal on the globe. 

"He looks abroad into the varied field 
Of nature, and though poor, perhaps, compar'd 
With those whose mansions glitter in his sight, 
Calls the delightful scenery all his own. 



226 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

• 

His are the mountains, and the valleys his, 
And the resplendent rivers. His t' enjoy 
With a propriety that none can feel, 
But who, with filial confidence inspir'd, 
Can lift to heaven an unpresumptuous eye, 
And smiling say, ' My Father made them all !' 
Are they not his by a peculiar right, 
And by an emphasis of interest his, 
Whose eyes they fill with tears of holy joy, 
Whose heart with praise, and whose exalted mind 
With worthy thoughts of that unwearied love 
That plann'd, and built, and still upholds a world, 
So clothed with beauty for rebellious man?" 

We see, then, that when to the gospel messenger 
or christian friend, while urging, or to the Spirit of 
God, when striving and entreating, the sinner either 
openly or in heart says, " Go thy way for this time ; 
when I have a convenient season I will call for 
thee," he acts in this matter very unreasonably, as 
well as criminally. In the first place, he seems in 
amount to say to God — "I have indeed sinned 
against thee, but not long enough ; let me trans- 
gress and rebel a little while longer. Let me 
violate thy laws, withhold from thee my affections, 
rob thee of thy due, abuse thy goodness, and slight 
thy calls, yet a while — until I shall find a convenient 
season to abandon this course, and pursue one of 
which thou wilt approve." What ! talk about and 
wait for a convenient season to do what we should, 
every moment of our life, be employed in doing ? 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 227 

What! ask God to wait until it may suit our con- 
venience to cease our rebellion, renounce sin, or 
begin to answer the great end of our being? 

And, in the next place, the sinner does, in such 
case, virtually plead for a longer season in which 
to experience the truth of the declaration, that "the 
w r ay of transgressors is hard ;" in which to be sub- 
jected to the inconveniences, fears, privations, and 
sufferings caused by ungodliness. He is indeed in 
bondage — bound by the fetters, and loaded with the 
chains of sin — but he pleads to be galled by the 
one, and oppressed grievously by the other, a while 
longer. He is a stranger to peace of conscience, 
and to the thousand joys and sweets which religion 
can shed on life's pilgrimage — but he pleads for a 
future convenient season, before he would feel that 
peace, partake of those joys, taste of those sweets. 
Preposterous ! How far from rational ! Can 
we have so lost our reason, as for a moment to 
imagine that this is a doing right, either toward 
God, or toward ourselves ? As if we had not 
sinned against God sufficiently, or been unhappy 
long enough, we still plead for " a convenient sea- 
son." When urged and pressed, w T e still persist in 
saying, " Not yet; not yet attend to duty; not yet 
become acquainted with substantial pleasures and 
joys!' 

It appears to me that the delaying sinner must be 
greatly beside himself, as well as very much har- 



228 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

dened, to adopt and pursue the course of conduct 
which he does. He must be amazingly ignorant 
or insensible in regard to his responsibilities, if he 
can keep his conscience from being exceedingly 
troublesome, whilst he is acting this procrastinating 
part. Just think. God holds the creature responsible 
for all the wrong in thought, feeling, desire, will, 
word, action, which he has fallen into ; and for all 
the glory and service which he might and should 
have rendered to the Lord, and all the good he 
might and should have done to his fellow men, but 
has not. And not this only. He moreover holds 
his rational creatures responsible for all that ability 
and disposition to serve him, and do good to them- 
selves and others, which they would have had, had 
they taken care of and improved their moral na- 
ture to the utmost extent of which they were even 
originally capable. Take this thought with, you, 
you who are for postponing the procurement of a 
right state of heart, the formation of a right charac- 
ter, the pursuit of a right course of conduct. 

3. Another reason which I would offer against 
the indulgence of a procrastinating spirit, is drawn 
from the power and influence of habit. Plato, being 
informed that one of his pupils was fond of gaming, 
reprimanded him for it. The disciple excused 
himself by saying that he only played for a trifle. 
u But," said Plato, u do you reckon for nothing the 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 229 

habit of gaming which playing for a trifle will make 
you contract?" 

Such is the power of habit — a power, in the im- 
penitent sinner's case, not lessening, not continuing 
merely the same, but constantly increasing — that, 
humanly speaking, the probability is day by day 
becoming less and less, that he will ever attend to 
what his duty and his high interests pressingly 
demand. By repeated acts of transgression, and 
omission of duty, the conscience is becoming more 
torpid, and the heart growing harder. Every addi- 
tional sinful act or indulgence blinds the eye more 
to sin's enormity; renders repentance and reforma- 
tion less likely ; drives the soul further from God ; 
and lessens the distance between hell and the sin- 
ner. In the case of the ungodly, as they go onward 
in their wayward and forbidden course, we find, 
step by step, more sins to repent of, and less time 
to repent in. Their insensibility spreads its roots 
wider and deeper ; their slumbers become more 
sound; the loud thunders of Sinai, and the tender 
and mellifluous notes of mercy, fall on ears more 
and more deaf; and their condition, by repeated 
acts of resistance and refusal, becomes more and 
more awfully alarming! Think, dear reader, of 
that portion of the impenitent who have gone past 
the season of youth ; of those whose sun has passed 
the meridian ; and those with whom it is fast going 
down, near setting in the western horizon. They 
20 



230 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

are still in their sins. Yes, behold here an aged 
man, there an aged woman, impenitent, out of 
Christ, and yet how stupid, how careless and insen- 
sible. How unmoved under mercy's melting voice, 
and heaven's roaring, bursting thunders. Oh, young 
reader, will you not take warning from their care- 
lessness and apathy, not to do as they have done ? 
You see how unmoved and immovable they are. 
Will you not be persuaded to avoid following their 
example? A more convenient season? Before 
you plead or cry for it, think of the stupifying and 
hardening effect of delay. Think of the force and 
effect of habit. What ! will the putting off of a 
duty which a man has no heart to attend to now^ 
which he at present hates^ tend in any measure to 
prepare him to love and attend to that duty after- 
wards? Will sinning more and more — will rebel- 
ling longer and longer against God, tend in the 
least to prepare a man to renounce his sin and rebel- 
lion ? Will a heart that is now unwilling to accept 
of offered mercy, become, by repeated and still 
repeated acts of refusal, any more willing to accept 
of the mercy offered ? Do you not see that a con- 
venient season is in this way pushed farther and 
farther off, instead of being brought nearer? — That 
the convenience for attending to what should be the 
grand business of life, is every moment becoming 
less and less, as the sinner goes onward ? His time 
is shortening, and yet his heart growing haider. To- 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 231 

day, if you will hear God's voice, harden not your 
heart — harden it not by a farther repetition of sin, 
or by a longer indulgence of the spirit of delay and 
impenitence. 

4. I will, in this chapter, advance but one more 
reason against indulging a procrastinating spirit. 
It is drawn from a consideration of the uncertainty 
of human life. 

It seems as though the delaying sinner is calcu- 
lating, as if certain of it, that he will live for some 
time to come. Would he suspend such invaluable 
interests as those of his immortal soul on an uncer- 
tainty, think you, if he plainly saw it to be an 
uncertainty ? Is there such hardihood and pre- 
sumption to be found in the human bosom, as to 
talk about, or be depending on, a future convenient 
season in which to prepare for death's approach, 
and for entering, exuitingly, into the celestial para- 
dise, unless he is imagining that he shall most 
certainly find such a season before he receives 
death's summons? Deluded creature! The fumes 
of the pit, along with the influence of a corrupt 
heart, have so bewitched his mind, and bedimmed 
his vision, that he thinks. he sees, away off in the 
future, a convenient season to prepare to die ! God 
eays, " Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou 
knowest not what a day may bring forth." Says 
Christ, "Be ready; for in such an hour as you 
think not. the Son of man cometh." But Satan, 



232 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

along with a corrupt heart, says, " Wait a while. 
There is time enough yet. Give yourself ease. 
It will be more convenient for you to attend to 
religion at some other time." And the joint coun- 
sel of this Evil Spirit, and of a wicked heart is 
listened to. and followed by poor sinners, in prefer- 
ence to the kind counsel and command of God. 
Thus the delaying creature locks arms with the 
Adversary, and walks along carelessly toward 
death and eternity, and, whenever urged or invited, 
talks about a more convenient season to come, until 
death stops his mouth, and drives his soul out of its 
house of clay, to seek another dwelling-place ! An- 
other dwelling-place ? Where ? Dying as a sinner, 
impenitent — where? How my heart sickens and 
bleeds ! Oh, how uncertain is life ! It is affirmed 
that " by the circulation of the blood through the 
heart and lungs, in which motion is consumed, and 
motion renewed every moment, the question is put 
about three thousand times every hour, and above 
a hundred thousand times every day and night of 
our lives, whether we shall stay in this world, or be 
in heaven or hell to eternity?" Alarming considera- 
tion ! tremendous thought ! Oh, how soon and how 
suddenly may eternity burst upon the ungodly — 
upon yourself, dear reader! The angel of death 
may even now be reaching forth his fingers to loose 
life's silver cord, or just ready to grasp the golden 
bowl to shiver it to atoms ! And, impenitent friend, 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 233 

• 

has that convenient season which you were promis- 
ing yourself, yet arrived? If you will not obey 
Christ's voice, you must at least obey death's sum- 
mons. The grim monarch of the grave will hold 
with you no parley. He will not wait till you set 
your house in order, if, when he comes, you are not 
ready. Speak to him about a convenient season ; 
tell him it has not come yet, and ask him to wait ; 
and he will answer you only by planting a dagger 
in your heart. 

" In human hearts what bolder thought can rise, 
Than man's presumption on to-morrow's dawn 7 
Where is to-morrow'? In another world. 
For numbers this is certain ; the reverse 
Is sure to none. And yet on this perhaps. 
This peradventure. infamous for lies, 
As on a rock of adamant, we build 
Our mountain hopes ; spin out eternal schemes, 
As we the fatal sisters could outspin, 
And, big with life's futurities, expire." 

Ah, what a solemn season is fast coming on ! A 
dark, portentous cloud is fast gathering over the 
head of the ungodly. That cloud is rapidly becom- 
ing heavier and blacker. See you that vivid light- 
ning's flash? Flee, sinner, without a moment's 
delay ; flee to the only shelter from the storm ! Do 
not, by sloth, bring ruin on your head ! Oh, do not, 
I beseech you, by procrastination, make your bed 
in hell! 

20* 



234 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 



CHAPTER XIII. 

BEWARE ! 

So solicitous am I, dear reader, that you should 
not plunge into an undone eternity, but should smile 
and sing with the heavenly throng forever, that you 
must allow me, in this chapter, to throw before you 
some additional friendly cautions and warnings. 

You are encompassed with dangers, and he acts 
the part of kindness who points them out to you, 
and cries, Beware ! For want of this, it is to be 
believed, many rush on destruction, who, with it, 
might have been saved from such a catastrophe. 

1. Beware of saying or thinking, a What have 
I done to deserve eternal destruction?" You have 
perused the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of this 
book to little profit, if you can here seriously ask 
such a question as this. What have you done to 
deserve to lie down in eternal sorrow? It is not 
necessary to relate everything you have done, nor 
everything you have left undone, in order to prove 
that it is a marvellous thing that you are yet out of 
hell. God has said, " Cursed is every one that con- 
tinued not in all things which are written in the 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 235 

book of the law to do them." Instead of doing all 
things there required, what single thing which is 
there commanded have you done, and because he 
enjoined it, or out of regard to his authority, and 
from love to him? u The wicked shall be turned 
into hell." You are one of the wicked, for you 
have never been born again. In how many parts 
of the holy scriptures are such as you threatened 
with everlasting destruction. Yet do you suppose 
that God would threaten men with such a destruc- 
tion, if they did not deserve it? You can have no 
very exalted opinion of the justice or goodness of 
the Deity, if you can imagine such a thing. 

2. Beware of keeping yourself in countenance, 
or drawing comfort from the idea, that there are 
others worse than yourself. This may be so. It is 
nevertheless a truth which should yield you no great 
satisfaction, whilst you are yet an unregenerate, 
unpardoned sinner. There are large numbers of 
amazingly wicked people in the world. Some of 
these may reside in your neighbourhood. If you 
are not so bad as some or many others of the human 
family, that does not prove that you are what you 
ought to be. You may still be, and are a very great 
sinner — such a sinner, that unless you obtain mercy, 
you will be forever a wretch undone. Your sins 
are of such a character, and are already in number 
so great, that if they were divided between several 
millions of persons, they would be sufficient to effect 



236 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

the everlasting ruin of them all. Not a few sinners 
are very much in the habit of warding off convic- 
tion, or of stifling it, by means of that flattering idea 
to which Satan is very ready, along with a depraved 
heart, to help them : that there are some, or many 
others worse than themselves. If you will but look 
at yourself in the mirror of God's law, you may dis- 
cover enough to put you out of conceit with your- 
self, and to lead you to utter with earnestness the 
publican's prayer. If you will turn back to the 6th 
chapter, you will find a quotation from Paul's 
writings, which condemns the taking of such a test 
or standard, by which to form a judgment of one's 
self, as that here alluded to. Guard against that 
mistake. 

3. Beware of trusting for an escape from the 
wrath to come, to the general mercy of God. Some 
sinners, when urged to fly from impending ruin, 
will plead, " God is merciful." It is a truth, a 
precious truth, that Jehovah is a God of mercy. 
No human creature would be saved, were he not. 
But is he not a just God too? Will he save any 
of the human family, to the dishonour of his justice? 
Does not the Lord hate sin ! And has he not said 
that he will punish sinners " with an everlasting 
destruction from his presence, and from the glory 
of his power?" He is merciful, but is he not also 
"a consuming fire?" He " keepeth mercy for 
thousands," but we are likewise told that he will 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 237 

" by no means clear the guilty." Is he savingly 
merciful to all mankind? Will he save all the 
human family, howsoever they live or die? Is 
there any such gospel as this to be found in our 
sacred book? If you continue in the love and 
practice of sin, or stay away from " the blood of the 
covenant," will you be saved? There are those 
who will enter into life, even a multitude which no 
man can number — but not such. 

4. Beware of pleading with a sort of satisfaction, 
" I do not wish to be a hypocrite. I detest hypo- 
crites." Well, I do not object to that. But who 
asks you to be a hypocrite ? I am sure it is no 
desire of mine that you should be one. I wish you, 
and for your own welfare in two worlds, this and 
the next, to be a real christian. Do you detest 
hypocrites? Well, then, prepare for death and 
heaven. If you only get into that u city whose 
Maker and Builder is God," you will not be an- 
noyed with the sight of hypocrites. But if you fail 
of getting ready to enter there, why, what a calam- 
ity will come upon you — you will have to dwell 
with hypocrites forever ! 

5. Beware of resting on the plea : " I am as good 
as some who make a profession of religion." It is 
possible that this may be so. #A11 are not Israel, 
who are of Israel. Church-members are not all of 
God's spiritual household. Even among the twelve 
apostles, there was one who was a bad man. Some 



238 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

who joined the church under Paul's ministry, did 
not "run well." The being a member of a church 
will not of itself save any one. And, if it were 
necessary, we would warn you not to seek a union 
with the church under the impression that you will 
by that means be put into a state of safety. " Except 
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God," whether he is within or outside of that sacred 
enclosure. But I entreat you, reader, not to attempt 
to keep your conscience quiet by seeking after or 
looking at the faults of professors. Even the best 
of them are not perfectly sanctified. They have 
sins to deplore ; and all the truly pious do mourn 
over their defects, and are seeking to become better. 
If you should become pious, and oh that you may, 
and without delay become so, 1 would not expect to 
see you sinlessly perfect all at once. Progression 
is the law of the divine kingdom. An infant does 
not spring up instantaneously into manhood. The 
grass, the grain does not shoot out of the earth, and 
appear at once in maturity. The Canaanites were 
not all expelled the land of promise immediately 
subsequent to the entering of the children of Israel 
into it. The apostle Paul, after he had been some 
time a christian, said concerning himself, " Not as 
though I had already attained, either were already 
perfect." It is to be deplored, indeed, that so many 
professors of religion are no more devoted, heavenly- 
minded christians than we find them. I pray that 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 239 

you may not only become a child of God, but an 
eminently pious and useful one. Do gratify me in 
this particular. 

6. Beware of pleading, or of saying to yourself, 
"I must wait God's time." When is God's time? 
Look into his word: what saith it? u Behold, now 
is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of sal- 
vation." " To-day if you will hear Christ's voice, 
harden not your heart." Where in the scriptures 
is it said, Begin to serve God to-rnorroio — Give your 
heart to the Lord to-morrow — Repent to-morrow — 
Believe at some future season ? The commands of 
Jehovah have in them a now, either expressed or 
implied. To-day, even this hour, reader, cease to 
war against God. Come over immediately on the 
Lord's side. Without delay, make a surrender of 
your heart to him to whom it of right belongs. 

Are you disposed to say, " I am doing all I can ?" 
If you were doing ever so much, I would not have 
you trust to it for life, but would warn you against 
resting on such a foundation. Too many attempt 
to make a Saviour out of their own doings, " By 
the deeds of the law shall no man living be justified." 
But whilst I would not have you expect to be saved 
by works, I would not have you expect to be saved 
without them. There are things that ought to be 
done, and which human creatures can do. They 
can consider their ways. They can read God's 
word. They can attend God's sanctuary. They can 



240 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

cry for help unto God. Do you do all these things, 
and to the extent that you are able? Beware of 
neglecting the diligent use of the means of grace. 
A certain old lady, when exhorted to prepare to 
meet God, replied, u I'm doing all 1 can." When 
asked, Do you read much in the Bible? "Not 
much," said she, "but I'm doing all I can." Do you 
attend religious meetings? "No — but I'm doing 
all I can." Do you pray daily, and several times 
a day, to God ? " Why, no ; I cannot say that I 
do ; but I'm doing all I can." About after this 
manner are multitudes passing on to the close of 
the day of grace. When addressed in relation to 
the concerns of their souls, they are quick in reply- 
ing, "I'm. doing all I can" — when the sober truth 
is, they are doing just nothing at all to secure salva- 
tion, but much to ensure damnation. 

7. Beware of trying to satisfy yourself for the 
neglect of duty by the plea, "I have not time to 
attend to religion." What! not time to answer the 
great end of your being ? not time to accomplish 
the great purpose for which you were put here, and 
afforded a day of grace ? It is not necessary for you 
to become idle, in becoming religious. You can 
attend as much as is needful to secular affairs, and 
yet attend to those momentous concerns which relate 
to the soul's salvation. If both could not be attended 
to, I would then certainly say, Let eternal things 
claim the attention, rather than those which are 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 241 

temporal. But God has not cast us into such a 
situation here, as that we cannot attend to all need- 
ful secular concerns, and likewise to those which 
relate to our everlasting well-being. You spend a 
great deal of time in ways which do not tend even 
to your temporal advantage. You are a great 
squanderer of precious time. If it were not for the 
desperate wickedness of your heart, causing an in- 
describable reluctance to attend to the momentous 
concerns of religion, you could find time every day for 
serious meditation, prayer, and other things required. 
It is not for the want of time, but for the want of 
inclination, that your duty and your soul are so 
au&azingly neglected ; and that you go toward eter- 
nity after the thoughtless, reckless manner that you 
do. Oh. am I compelled still to weep over your 
obduracy and carelessness ? I did hope that ere you 
reached this part of the book, you would come to its 
perusal with a troubled heart and weeping eyes at 
least — that you would feel yourself to be in such a 
situation as a poor, guilty, condemned sinner, that you 
would not need further to be urged to seek for mercy. 
8. Methinks I hear you say, " I do feel that I am 
unsafe ; my sins trouble me ; but what can I do ? 
I cannot change my own heart" Well, I am glad 
to hear you express the least concern respecting your 
state. I do not ask you to change your own heart 
I know that you cannot. It belongs to God the 
Holy Ghost to renew men's hearts. But, then, 
21 



242 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

can you not ask him to do this work? And when 
he comes and strives with you, can you not welcome 
him, and accept of his gracious offer? One thing 
is certain, that you are not without a new heart 
because you are unable to renew it yourself. As 
soon, to say the least, as you shall be willing to 
have the work done, and will ask him, the Spirit 
will do it for you. Beware, then, of trying to justify 
yourself for continuing what or where you are, by 
the plea just stated. 

And here I warn you to beware of trusting, as 
many do, to some outward and partial reformation. 
Such a thing may be quite a benefit to you as to 
this life. But it by no means amounts to what is 
requisite in order to enter into life eternal. Such a 
reformation as is outward or partial, it is in the 
power of the creature to effect. It is within the 
power, for example, of the profane swearer to for- 
sake his profanity ; of the inebriate to give up his 
intemperate indulgence ; of the thief to abandon 
his course of violence and of plunder. All this may 
be done by them, and yet they retain hearts teem- 
ing with enmity against their Maker. I want you 
to meet with so great, thorough, radical a change, 
as God the Spirit alone can effect. But, then, as I 
intimated a moment ago. this Omnipotent and in- 
finitely gracious Agent will be ready to do this work 
for you, just so soon as you shall be willing to have 
him do it. 



FOR THE DIPENITENT. 243 

But I can consent to occupy no more space or 
time in warning you against a resort to such miser- 
able subterfuges. Beware of all pretexts of like 
character, they will but make you the laughing- 
stock of devils ; and, I would add, beware of indulg- 
ing the disposition which originates them. 

It is my desire, in the remainder of this chapter, 
to direct your mind to certain other things against 
w T hich I am not a little anxious that you should be 
on your guard. One of these relates to repentance. 

I can hardly entertain the idea of your being so 
much in the dark concerning your duty, and the 
way or terms of salvation, as to need to be called on 
to beware of imagining repentance to be unneces- 
sary or useless. Nothing, certainly is so, on w T hich 
the Deity so much insists in his sacred word as he 
does on repentance. Nor is this strange, since the 
Bible is a book intended for sinners. 

We read that the Lord " now commandeth all 
men everywhere to repent." Jesus opened his minis- 
try with saying, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven 
is at hand ;" and the same thing was the burden 
of his forerunner, John the Baptist. Our Lord, 
coming into Galilee after his baptism, preached, 
saying, " The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of 
God is at hand ; repent ye, and believe the gospel." 
The apostles of Jesus, in the fulfilment of the duties 
assigned them, preached repentance and remission 
of sins in his name, wherever they went among the 



244 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

nations. Prophets under the Old Testament dis- 
pensation, as well as apostles under the New. called 
sinners to repentance. " Repent, and turn your- 
selves from your idols, and turn away your faces 
from all your abominations. — Wash you, make you 
clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before 
mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well. — 
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts ; and let him return unto the 
Lord." This is Old Testament language. 

The indispensable necessity of repentance is in- 
sisted on in both Testaments. Hear what God by 
the prophet Ezekiel says: M Repent, and turn your- 
selves from all your transgressions ; so iniquity shall 
not be your ruin." And you remember those words 
of Jesus, " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise > 
perish." (Luke xiii. 3.) Apart from repentance,* 
there can be no preparedness, no meetness to enter 
into life. Ruin, endless ruin is the consequence of 
a want of it. Beware, reader, of continuing in im- * 
penitence, if you would not lie down in unending 
torment. "Some people," said Philip Henry, "do 
not like to hear much of repentance ; but I think it 
so necessary, that if I should die in the pulpit, I wish 
to die preaching repentance, and if out of the pulpit, 
practising it." 

Assuming that you do not need to have the neces- 
sity of repentance at greater length dwelt upon, we 
will proceed to call your attention to another thing 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 245 

respecting it, and about which it may not be need- 
less to put you on your guard. Beware of falling 
into a mistake concerning the true nature of repent- 
ance. If its necessity is acknowledged — if it is so 
important that there is no escape from the terrors 
of coming wrath without it — then we would say, 
Beware of taking that for genuine repentance, or 
u repentance unto life," which is not. Such a caution 
is the more requisite, because mistake here is so 
common, and so liable to be fallen into. 

In repentance there is conviction of sin — a com- 
paratively clear and lively perception of one's guilt 
-—a state of mind in striking contrast with that in 
which, perverted by abounding inward corruptions, 
prejudiced by erroneous notions, and habituated to 
view things through the jaundiced medium of his 
evil propensities and passions, the creature was prone 
to wonder why he should be accounted deserving 
of God's everlasting displeasure, and represented as 
exposed to it. The true penitent sees his sins to be 
great in number and in atrocity, and that God would 
but act justly toward him should he consign him to 
the flames which will never be put out. He sees 
that it was astonishing divine forbearance which kept 
him from tossing on the burning billows of his in- 
dignation, whilst he was steeling his heart against 
him, trampling on his authority, transgressing his 
laws, and disregarding his glory. But here we 
would caution you against indulging the idea that 
21* 



246 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

conviction of sin is all that enters into repentance. 
It is but a small part of it. Where it exists by itself, 
or alone in any mind, that man can with no pro- 
priety be called a true penitent. How many, at 
some time in their life, have their eyes thrown so 
wide open as to be amazed at the sight which they 
have of their sinfulness, who nevertheless persist in 
walking in their evil ways. Though for a little 
while brought to a sort of pause, their convictions 
are stifled, or pass away, and they "turn like the 
dog to his vomit again, or the sow that was washed 
to her wallowing in the mire." 

In genuine repentance there is sorrow or grief. 
The penitent has a change in his feelings, as well 
as in his views. He is more or less pained because 
he has done wickedly. His tearful eyes and heav- 
ing bosom not unfrequently give signs of deep in- 
ward distress — distress occasioned by a sight of the 
manner in which he has been living. Many have 
felt indescribable mental anguish. The prophet 
Jeremiah represents Ephraim as " bemoaning him- 
self," and as "smiting upon his thigh," in the grief 
and anguish of his heart. You must have sorrow 
for sin, if you would not pass into eternity in im- 
penitence. You should be deeply grieved because 
of your infractions of the divine law, and your abuse 
of divine goodness — should be in bitterness of spirit 
because of having so multiplied your iniquities be- 
yond all reckoning, and persisted in sinning under 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 247 

circumstances so exceedingly to aggravate your 
guilt. 

But we would, at the same time, warn you against 
the mistake run into by not a few — I mean the mis- 
take of thinking that sorrow or grief is the utmost 
of what repentance embraces. And what we wish 
you on this point particularly to beware of is, the 
confounding of a sorrow for having Exposed one's 
self to the threatened penalty, or dread consequences 
of sin, with a sorrow for sin itself. The two things 
are separable, and the former is often found where 
the latter has no existence. Sorrow for sin because 
of what itself is, is essential to repentance unto life. 

In genuine repentance, there is a hatred of sin. 
Sin is detestable in its nature. It is, then, most 
reasonable to hate it. This feeling toward it entered 
into the repentance of the Corinthian professors. 
u For, behold, this self-same thing that ye sorrowed 
after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in 
you — yea, what indignation — yea, what revenge. 11 
This holy indignation, this heavenjborn revenge, is 
a most important part of repentance. 

But let it be borne in mind, that sin may be hated 
where genuine repentance exists not. Sin is our 
enemy, and it is likewise an enemy of God. Now 
it is possible to hate sin on the former account alone 
— not at all on the latter account. Evangelical 
repentance is not so selfish ; it has love to God, as 
well as love to ourselves in it. We have a right to 



248 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

hate sin, because it is our enemy ; but we should 
chiefly hate it because it is hateful to God ; because 
it is rebellion against him ; because it robs him of 
the glory which is his due. If you are brought to 
hate sin, ask yourself for what you hate it. He 
who has repentance unto salvation, hates sin because 
he loves Goi— hates it out of regard to tke divine 
will and glof*y. 

The repentance which we wish you to exercise, 
includes in it a forsaking of or turning from sin. 
This last is indeed implied in a hating of it. There 
is a meaning in the expression, u repentance totvard 
God" that is, as it may be understood, a repentance 
which includes in it a turning unto God. The 
prophet Hosea represents the God of Israel as com- 
plaining, " They return, but not to the Most High." 
Impenitent men often turn from one sin to another. 
But the truly penitent turn from all sin to the Lord. 
We will not turn as true penitents from sin, without 
making God the object of our affection, and en- 
deavouring to pjease him by walking in his paths. 

Genuine repentance leads to a confession of sin. 
Sorrow for and detestation of sin, and love to God 
combined, lead to this. There is no effort at con- 
cealment made by the true penitent ; or if there is 
at first, he is driven from it. His lips are forced 
open, that he may unburthen himself of the oppres- 
sive load. Hear what David says on this subject, 
in the 32d Psalm, " When I kept silence, my bones 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 249 

waxed old through my roaring all the day long. 
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me j 
my moisture was turned into the drought of summer. 
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity 
have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgres- 
sions unto the Lord ; and thou forgavest the iniquity 
of my sin." It was only in this way the Psalmist 
could find inward ease. 

Such a repentance we call upon you to exercise. 
You will never enter the pearly gates, or walk the 
golden streets of the city of God without it. 

But beware, at the same time, of making more 
out of repentance than the scriptures will warrant. 
Beware of putting it in the room of Christ, as we fear 
too many do. Repentance in no case satisfies for 
a breach of law. A man does not atone for a crime 
by repentance ; nor does he pay a debt by it. A 
physician of great latitude in his religious senti- 
ments, being called to attend an intelligent, pious 
lady in her illness, frequently insisted in her pre- 
sence, with a good deal of dogmatism, that repent- 
ance and reformation were all that either God or 
man could require of us; and that consequently 
there was no necessity for an atonement by the 
sufferings of the Son of God. Upon the lady's re- 
covery she invited him to tea. The table being 
removed, she remarked to him that her illness had 
occasioned him a number of journeys, and consider- 
able expense for medicines, and expressed her sorrow 



250 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

for it, and promised that on any future indisposition 
she would* never trouble him again. " So you see," 
said she, " I both repent and reform." The doctor, 
immediately shrugging up his shoulders, exclaimed, 
" That will not do for me." 

You have heard of the Foundation laid in Zion. 
u Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, 
which is Jesus Christ." If you build on any other, 
the consequence to yourself will be most disastrous. 
Your fabric will fall, and great will the fall be. 
Would you escape the wrath to come? It must be 
on the ground of the sacrifice of Christ. Would 
you have a title to life ? Christ's meritorious obe- 
dience must furnish it. Would you know how you 
may obtain such an interest in the sacrifice and 
obedience of Jesus, as that these effects will follow? 
The answer is, by faith. Beware of thinking that 
you can escape hell, and enter into heaven without 
faith. If anything is plainly revealed, as essential 
to salvation, faith is. Take your Bible, and read 
Mark xvi. 16; John iii. 15, 16, 18, 36; v. 24; vi. 
29, 35, 40 ; viii. 24 ; xii. 47, 48 ; xx. 31 ; Acts xiii. 
39; xvi. 31; Rom. iii. 26; Heb. Hi. 18, 19; Rev. 
xxi. 8. 

Having thus ascertained that faith is essential to 
salvation, you should next be careful to ascertain in 
what it consists. What is its nature? Beware of 
taking that for genuine, saving faith, which is not. 
If you err here, you err to your ruin. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 251 

God has, in the sacred scriptures, revealed such 
truths as the following : We are sinners ; the soul 
that sinneth shall die; Christ the Son of God is a 
Saviour ; there is no Saviour beside him. Now it 
is possible to fall into the mistake of thinking that 
a cold, heartless, inoperative assent to these truths is 
saving faith. An assent of the mind to such truths, 
is certainly one essential ingredient in it. It must be 
a cordial assent, however — for the cold and listless 
assent which is every day given to such truths by 
thousands who take no interest in them, and are in 
no degree influenced by them in their practice, can 
hardly so much as be called an ingredient in true 
faith. The awakened sinner, under the guidance 
and influence of the Holy Spirit, has such truths 
presented to his mind, with an evidence which has 
all the force of demonstration. The operations of 
the mind on any subject cannot be so described as 
to render them intelligible to those who have never 
experienced them ; but, as one speaking on this point 
remarks, we "can conceive the difference between 
the assent that we give to a truth which we have 
not properly considered, and about which we feel no 
concern, and our assent to a truth which we under- 
stand, and know to be intimately connected with our 
interest. Such is the difference between the assent 
which enters into speculative, and that which enters 
into saving faith. The latter is founded on clear 
perceptions of the truth, and excellence, and infinite 



252 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

importance of the gospel. An evidence accompanies 
it, which dispels all doubt, removes all objections, 
and creates the highest assurance." 

But, my reader, your mind may yield a hearty 
assent to such truths as I specified, and you may 
yet want something which is essential to saving 
faith. The one great object of saving faith being 
the Lord Jesus Christ, how, suppose you, should 
the soul feel and act in reference to him? Should 
it not cordially u receive and rest 11 upon him for sal- 
vation ? Such a reception and reliance are essential 
to the faith which is unto eternal life. He who 
savingly believes, not only assents to the testimony 
of God contained in the gospel concerning his Son 
as true, but rests on the object set forth in that tes- 
timony. This is evident from the terms in which, 
such faith is described in the sacred writings. It is 
called a receiving of Christ, John, i. 12; a coming 
unto him, Matt. xi. 28 ; a fleeing for refuge to lay 
hold on the hope set before us, Heb. vi. 18 ; an 
eating of his flesh and a drinking of his blood, 
John, vi. 53, 54. These terms import such motion 
or activity as the soul exerts when it not only con- 
templates, but desires and embraces the good which 
is presented to it. Faith is indicated in the Old 
Testament by a trusting in the Lord. Now what 
is it to trust in a person ? It is not merely to believe 
that he has power, and is willing to deliver us from 
danger and distress, and to confer benefits ; but to 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 253 

accept his proffered assistance, and to commit our 
interest to his care and disposal. The convicted 
sinner, discovering and feeling his guilt, hearing 
the denunciations of the broken law of God ; 
and the accusing and condemning accents of his 
own conscience, resorts first to various expedients, 
such as his pride and carnality suggest, to relieve 
himself of his fears, and secure himself from the 
threatened evils — but rinding them ineffectual, and 
the voice of inviting mercy falling upon his ear, and 
the tenders of gospel grace being presented to hinv 
he is prepared to welcome them ; cordially to receive 
the great Deliverer, and throw himself upon the true 
Foundation. Thus doing he feels himself secure. 
Knowing that the Son of God in our nature has 
suffered and died, " the just for the unjust," that 
Jesus has paid the dreadful debt, and therefore that 
it cannot be exacted of himself, if he by faith be 
allied to him, his fearful apprehensions pass away. 
Having found an unfailing refuge and resting-place, 
he smiles and sings. He lifts his heart and voice 
in praise of redeeming love and delivering grace. 

It may be remarked, in addition, that he who 
receives Christ in his sacerdotal office, will also 
receive him in his prophetic and his regal. He 
will be willing to be taught and ruled by him. 

Oh, my reader, are you now willing to receive 
and rest on Jesus? Beware of everything that would 
keep you from Christ. Out of Christ, you are poor 
22 



254 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

and blind, and miserable, and naked. Out of him 
you are as stubble to the consuming fire. Those 
who have gone to hell, all died out of Christ 

Beware of a the damning sin of unbelief/' Un- 
belief has the effrontery to call God a liar. Unbelief 
rejects Jesus and his salvation. It fastens the guilt 
of all his other sins upon the sinner. ^ It doubly 
murders the soul. Alas ! what myriads, from the 
Jews in our Saviour's time downward, in every 
age to the present, have ruined themselves forever 
through unbelief! 

Beware of being ashamed of Jesus Christ. What 
a caution is this ! Can it be possible that my reader 
needs it? Go, ask the shining ranks on high if 
they are ashamed of Jesus Christ. Would they not 
shudder at the question ? Yet there are, doubtless, 
multitudes of creatures on earth that are ashamed 
of u the man who is God's Fellow ;" ashamed to fly 
to him for help, and openly to appear on his side. 

"Jesus! and shall it ever be, 
A mortal man ashamed of thee 1 
Ashamed of thee, whom angels praise, 
Whose glory shines through endless days !" 

How unreasonable, how wicked, how ruinous to be 
ashamed of Christ ! Read Mark, viii. 38 : " Who- 
soever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me, and of 
my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, 
of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when 



FOil THE IMPENITENT. 255 

he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy 
angels." 

My reader, is there not something — what is it — 
ah, what idol, that you are unwilling to part with 
for Jesus? Look at the following words — they are 
from the lips of Jesus Christ : " If any man come to 
me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, 
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his 
own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And who- 
soever doth not bear his cross, and come after me. 
cannot be my disciple. Whosoever he be of you 
that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my 
disciple." (Luke, xiv. 26, 27, 33.) Let me request 
you to read likewise the following words of our 
Lord — '* He that loveth father or mother more than 
me, is not worthy of me ; and he that loveth son or 
daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And 
he that taketh not his cross, and folioweth after me, 
is not worthy of me." (Matt. x. 37, 38.) Volun- 
tarily, cordially, separate yourself from every sin 
and every idol for Christ's sake. 

Oh, be persuaded to yield yourself to Christ. It 
is related in Roman history, that when the people 
of Coilatine stipulated about their surrender to the 
authority and protection of Rome, the question asked 
was, " Do you deliver up yourselves, the Coilatine 
people, your city, your fields, your water, your 
bounds, your temples, your utensils, al! things that 
are yours, into the hands of the people of Rome ?" 



256 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

And on their replying, " We deliver up all," they 
were received. So you, beloved reader, should make 
an equally voluntary and comprehensive surrender 
of yourself, and all pertaining to you, to the blessed 
Redeemer. How much did he surrender for our 
sakes ! 

Beware of treating unkindly the Holy Spirit, and 
the convictions or serious impressions which he pro- 
duces. His visit to you is one of infinite benevolence 
and mercy. He would show you your sins, and the 
danger of your state, that you may be induced to 
seek for deliverance. And he would then hold up 
to you Christ, and set before you the gracious truths 
and invitations of his gospel, that you may readily, 
cheerfully, betake yourself to him, an^d affectionately 
and gratefully embrace him. Be careful to entertain 
him, and the impressions of which he is the author. 
Grieve not away the one ; wear not away nor stifle 
the other. 

Beware, under conviction, of saying or thinking, 
tt I am not fit to come to Christ." By means of this 
plausible notion of a want of fitness, the adversary 
would like to keep you from the only Saviour. It 
is because you are a sinner, that Jesus calls and in- 
vites you to come to him. 

" All the fitness he requireth, 
Is to feel your need of him." ^ 

Says Thomas Adam, " If we see ourselves bad 



f&k THE IMPENITENT* 257 

enough for Christ, he sees us good enough.'' Never 
should the thought of the number, or greatness, or 
aggravation of out sins hinder Us from fleeing to 
Christ. u The weight of our sins, 5 ' says M'Cheyne, 
Ci should act like the weight of a clock ; the heavier 
k is, it makes it go the faster.'* 

Bew r are of staying away from Christ Until you 
first become betted 

" If you tarry till you're better, 
You will never come at all." 

Approach and touch the hem of Christ's garment, 
and thou shah find virtue coming out of him, and 
into thee, that shall make thee better. Put thyself 
under the influence streaming from the cross, and 
instantly shall thy heart begin to spring up from 
the clay, thy dark character to brighten, and thy 
beclouded face to shine. Oh, reader, hie to the 
K wicket gate." Beware of counsel that "causeth 
to err. 77 Listen not to '• Obstinate," or "Pliable," or 
a Worldly Wiseman," or " Legality." Let nothing, 
nothing, from without or within, keep thee from the 
blood-sprinkled way leading to the celestial city. 



258 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FORGIVENESS. 

To an awakened, anxious sinner, such as you, 
reader, may now be, no subject can be more inter- 
esting and important than the one expressed in the 
above title. And in offering to you some thoughts 
upon it, at this time, I know not how better to pro- 
ceed than by having, more particularly, before me 
those words of the son of Jesse with which is com- 
menced the 32d Psalm: " Blessed is he whose 
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth 
not iniquity." So thought that king of Israel who 
in another Psalm cries, " Have mercy upon me, O 
God, according to thy loving kindness ; according 
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out 
my transgressions ;" and so will every one think 
who thinks aright. It is not here said, Blessed is 
the man who has never sinned, who has never 
broken the divine commandments ; who has never 
trampled on the authority, or run counter to the 
will of God. Alas ! where is such an one of woman 
born to be found ? If no creatures were blessed 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 259 

but such as have acted toward God, his government, 
his laws, as the holy angels have acted, then none 
of human kind, surely, could be pronounced blessed: 
for these latter all have sinned, and come short of 
the glory of God. 

Anterior to all experience, and to all divine testi- 
mony in relation to the matter, the thought could 
apparently have never entered the mind of man, 
that, transgressing in a single instance the law of 
God, he could ever be dealt with in the manner 
hinted at in those words of the inspired Psalmist, 
which we have quoted. The transgressors of a 
higher race found no pardoning mercy from the 
Lord. And the first human pair received no inti- 
mation, prior to their fall, that falling they could 
ever find any door of mercy thrown open to them : 
that they could by possibility ever hear of any such 
thing as is denoted by the word forgiveness. The 
conduct of our first parents, after they had partaken 
of the interdicted fruit, showed that their bosoms 
were strangers to any such fond anticipation as the 
first gracious promise was adapted and designed to 
inspire, before that promise was actually given them. 
Yes ; it was too much for man to hope, that once 
transgressing the divine precept, he could ever pos- 
sibly, in any way, find pardon. And certainly the 
threatening was too positive to leave any, even the 
least ground to hope. 

Yet our ears have become familiar with the 



260 THOUGHTS AND COtfNSiiLS 

sound, and our minds with the doctrine of Divine 
forgiveness. And familiarity here is attended with 
its usual effects. As in looking at the sun, we now 
little think of the glory of that luminary; so in 
hearing of forgiveness, we little think of the grace 
whieh that word imports^ or of the blessedness of 
those who are the subjects of it. Oh 5 how few 
appear to think at all of its importance and precious* 
ness. What smaller numbers still, so prize it as to 
seek after it. 

In those words of the inspired Psalmist, which 
we have chosen as the basis of our remarks in this 
chapter, the object of forgiveness is stated in the 
three terms, iniquity, transgression, and sin. I 
suppose we may understand by these terms, as here 
used, all the various forms or sorts of sin — as sins 
of heart, sins of life ; sins of omission, sins of com- 
mission ; sin as seen by the Lord in states of mind, 
and that which manifests itself in action ; as well 
as the different degrees of turpitude in which it 
exhibits itself. Now sin affects man in various 
ways. It, for instance, blinds his mind; it has 
turned his affections from right to wrong objects ; 
his heart has become hardened by it; his soul has 
become polluted, corrupt, through its influence. 
But pardon Jias nothing to do, directly, with these 
effects. But there is another effect which sin has 
had on mankind. It has brought the curse of God, 
or of his law, upon them. They are condemned 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 261 

creatures in consequence. The sentence which 
was pronounced against transgression they have 
fallen under. The penalty of the broken law they 
are liable to have executed upon them to their ever- 
lasting undoing. Now forgiveness has respect, 
strictly, to this latter effect, and indicates its re- 
moval. 

The Psalmist's words speak of forgiveness in 
three forms. They speak of transgression forgiven; 
of sin covered; of iniquity not imputed. As to the 
first of these — there is indicated that he, whose 
transgression is dealt with according to the manner 
there spoken of, is delivered from the "obligation" 
to punishment, which by virtue of the sentence of 
the law he before lay under. As the original im- 
ports, the curse, which is as a heavy burthen, is 
lifted off ; and thus the remission of sin gives rest 
or relief to the oppressed. The same idea is im- 
ported by the expression, " take away" as applied 
to sin. Thus Job says, "Why dost thou not take 
away my iniquity ?" It is a metaphor derived from 
the circumstance of the lifting off the burden from 
a man who is carrying or attempting to carry a load 
whose weight he is about to sink under. Thus, 
when the heavy burthen of sin is on us, and press- 
ing us down, this in the act of pardon is removed ; 
the soul is lightened of it. Forgiveness is likewise 
expressed in the words alluded to, as well as else- 
where in the sacred scriptures, by the covering of 



262 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

sin : a whose sin is covered.'' 1 u Thou hast covered 
all their sin." (Psalm lxxxv. 2.) This was typified 
by the mercy-seat covering the ark, in which were 
deposited the two tables of the law. This covering 
of sin is not a covering of it from the eye of God's 
omniscience, but a covering of it from his vindica- 
tory or punitive justice ; such a covering of it as 
that a righteous and sin-avenging God will not so 
see it as to proceed against it in the way of punish- 
ment. An object is hid from our view by its being 
covered over ; and it is doubtless from it that the 
figure of the Psalmist is drawn. Again : Forgive- 
ness is expressed by a non-imputation of sin. Thus 
it is said, " Blessed is the man to whom the Lord 
imputeth not iniquity." A not imputing of iniquity 
is a not laying it to the sinner's charge ; a not 
reckoning it to him in such a way as to proceed 
against him for it, as the Lord in justice might, or 
as the sinner deserves. 

There are other expressions of holy writ by which 
forgiveness is denoted, and which may help to the 
understanding of its nature. It is expressed, for 
instance, as a blotting put of sins. Said God to 
Israel, " I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy trans- 
gressions." There is an allusion to a creditor, who. 
when his debtor has paid him, blots out the account, 
draws a mark across, or effaces it. His debts no 
longer stand charged in the creditor's books — no 
longer any account is to be found against him. To 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 263 

forgive sin is also expressed by a casting of it into 
the depths of the sea. This form of expression is 
intended to import the Lord's burying of one's sins 
out of his sight, that they may not rise up in 
judgment against the perpretrator. It is, moreover, 
expressed by a non-remembrance of it. Thus God 
says, il I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, 
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember 
no more" i. e., treat them as if he had forgotten 
them. 

It may be farther remarked in reference to for- 
giveness, that it comes, and can come only from 
God. " Who can forgive sins but God only ?" said 
the Jews to Christ. None else has the right or the 
power. Sin is committed against God, and if it be 
remitted at all, the remission must come from him. 
The Popish absolution by priests is a figment. 
Reader, get your absolution from God, if you desire 
that which is real, and that which can profit you in 
the world to come. 

The ground, the sole ground of pardon, let us 
proceed, though briefly, to consider. To you, my 
dear friend, a correct understanding of no point is 
more important than of this. Be careful, be careful 
to avoid all mistake or error here. The ground of 
pardon is not any merit of the creature. It is not 
anything that fallen man has ; nor anything he can 
do. Wealth cannot purchase it ; personal works, 
or righteousness, can by no means entitle any crea- 



264 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

ture of the fall to it. Heaven cannot be entered 
without good works, without an internal righteous- 
ness. These pertain to a meetness to enter into life. 
But they help not in the least to constitute the meri- 
torious ground of pardon. This is a distinct matter, 
which must be looked for elsewhere. The Rev. 
David Dickson, professor of divinity in Edinburgh, 
being asked, when on his death-bed, how he found 
himself, answered. "I have taken my good deeds 
and bad deeds, and thrown them together in a heap, 
and fled from them both to Christ, and in him I have 
peace." Oh, my reader, the streams of divine, par- 
doning mercy, which, when traced downward in 
their course, are found flowing to sinful men so 
much to their benefit, are, when traced upward, 
found to have their source in the benevolence of 
God indeed : but they are seen invariably coming 
by the way of Calvary, before they reach any of 
Adam's guilty progeny. On that crimsoned summit 
is kept, by the Lord God Almighty, the great reser- 
voir from which sinners derive forgiving mercy, if 
that mercy they ever find. One of the most promi- 
nent doctrines of both the Old and New Testa- 
ment scriptures is. that " without shedding of blood 
there is no remission." But what blood? Not that 
of bulls and goats; it could never take away sin. 
But it told of blood that could. The bloody offer- 
ings of the ancient dispensation had typical signifi- 
cancy in them. They speak of the bloody tree of 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 2G5 

Calvary. Prophets and apostles stand and point to 
the cross. These both, with loud voice, cry, Re- 
mission of sin by the blood of the cross. The suffer- 
in o-s of the incarnate Son of God were vicarious: 
the death of Jesus Christ was a propitiatory sacri- 
fice. Hear Isaiah : u Surely he hath borne our 
griefs, and carried our sorrows. He was wounded 
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniqui- 
ties ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him ; 
and with his stripes we are healed. The Lord 
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Hear 
Paul: " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of 
the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, 
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." " Christ 
also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an 
offering and a sacrifice to God." •• He hath made 
him to be sin (a sin-offering) for us, who knew no 
sin ; that we might be made the righteousness of 
God in him.'' Speaking of Christ, Peter also says, 
" Who, his own self, bare our sins in his own body 
on the tree." And again : " For Christ also hath 
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust." How 
often in the sacred writings is Christ represented as 
dying for us, i. e., in our room or stead. Let me 
add the following passages : " But now once, in the 
end of the world, hath he (Christ) appeared, to put 
away sin by the sacrifice of himself." " In whom 
we have redemption through his blood, even the 
forgiveness of sins." 

23 



266 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

I could here add remarks of my own, attempting 
to show that in such passages of holy writ as we 
have quoted, we are taught that Christ, by his 
sufferings unto death, has rendered such a satisfac- 
tion to the law and justice of God for sin, that all 
who receive him by faith obtain forgiveness. But 
it appears to me that this would be very much like 
attempting to demonstrate one of the plainest axioms 
in mathematics, or like holding up a candle to you 
at mid-day. to assist you to behold the sun. The 
language of the Holy Ghost on this subject is as 
plain as any language that can possibly be em- 
ployed. 

Carry this truth constantly with you, reader : 
The death of the Lord Jesus Christ is the alone 
ground of pardon. Are you a trembling sinner, 
panting for forgiveness for your aggravated and 
countless sins? We would say to you, in the lan- 
guage of John the Baptist: "Behold the Lamb of 
God, who taketh away the sin of the world." 

It is not uncommon for sinners to look for pardon, 
or expect escape from coming wrath in some other 
way — in ways which the scriptures sanction not nor 
teach ; in ways, indeed, in w r hich the Bible tells us 
positively that it cannot be obtained. Many look 
for forgiveness irrespective altogether of the atone- 
ment of Christ ; yet God grants it to none irrespec- 
tive of it, and he never will ; nor indeed, (we would 
say it reverently,) can he, without trampling on the 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 267 

demands of justice ; without appearing to connive 
at sin ; and without falsifying also his word. In 
all cases in which pardoning mercy is exercised, 
there is in its bestowment a due regard had to the 
rights of God ; to the honour of his government, 
and to the claims of his law. It is not a weak pity, 
such as is frequently exercised by a parent toward 
an offending child, or by a weak judge toward a 
culprit at the bar. God's forgiving mercy is com- 
bined in its exercise with the due influence of every 
consideration arising out of the public and official 
station which is occupied by Him as the ruler of an 
universe of intelligent beings, whose interests as a 
whole, as well as his own honour, will not be left 
out of view in the treatment of individuals. Its 
dispensation toward all the happy objects of it is 
according to certain rules, after a fixed order. It is 
'•invariably accompanied with suitable displays of 
the divine purity; and its consequences combine 
with the relief and eternal felicity of its objects, the 
maintenance of the claims of divine moral govern- 
ment, and the advancement of the divine glory." 
Look at the atonement made by the infinitely 
precious blood of God's dear Son, and you behold 
the peculiar and exclusive medium through which 
pardon is dispensed by the infinite God, and the 
alone way in which it can be dispensed, without 
infringing on the rights and glory of the moral 
Governor of the universe. 



268 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

Do all mankind procure pardon through this 
medium? We reply, Those of mankind who pro- 
cure it at all do ; but it is to be borne in mind that 
according to the purpose and plan of God as revealed 
in the gospel, none receive forgiveness through the 
atonement of Christ except those who repent and 
believe. Repentance and faith the apostles every- 
where taught to be essential to the forgiveness of 
sins. This, indeed, is the current language of the 
New Testament. You can nowhere find the gos- 
pel proclaiming and promising pardon to all men, 
whether they exercise repentance toward God, and 
faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, or not. Some- 
times, it is true, the language is such as that some 
might conclude that only one of these is necessary 
— either repentance or faith — for sometimes the one 
is mentioned as necessary, and sometimes the other. 
It is seldom that they are both mentioned together. 
But then it is to be remembered that where one is 
mentioned, the other is implied : for they go together. 
Repentance and faith, in the gospel scheme, though 
they are by no means one and the same thing, yet 
are inseparable. Where one exists, there does the 
other. Let it be borne in mind, that the gospel 
does not proclaim a general amnesty, or an indis- 
criminate absolution, to all the human family; to 
the impenitent and unbelieving, as well as to the 
penitent and believing. No such proclamation as 
that, has Jehovah authorised to be made ; and he 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 269 

only has the right to say on what terms sin shall 
be forgiven. It is a great deal, to provide, and te 
say, authoritatively, that it may be forgiven in any 
way, on any terms. And it is certainly very gracious 
and merciful in him, to see to having such provision 
made, as that forgiveness may be offered on so easy 
terms especially as those of repentance and faith. 

Notwithstanding what we have said in the pre- 
ceding chapter in reference to these last, it may not 
be deemed superfluous to drop a few additional 
remarks concerning the necessity of each. 

And, first, in relation to the necessity of repent- 
ance. It is not that repentance merits the forgiveness 
of sin, that it is called for as a prerequisite. I have 
already stated the sole meritorious ground of pardon 
to be, the blood of Christ. Tears cannot purchase 
pardon. If they could, then Christ's blood might 
have remained in his veins, and he in heaven ; he 
then need never to have stooped so low as to assume 
our nature. But it has seemed proper in God's 
sight, and even to men there cannot but appear a 
fitness in it, that those only shall have the bestow- 
ment of so great a blessing as pardon, who desire 
and seek after it. But the impenitent, the blind, 
the obdurate, the careless, will not seek after it ; 
they will not anxiously desire it ; for they indeed 
see not the need of it. They see their sins, and 
view the law of God in no such light as leads to a 
discovery of the value or importance of pardon. 
23* 



270 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

The Lord would have such a blessing as that of 
fergiveness prized by those to whom he imparts it. 
None but the humbled, penitent, contrite, know 
how to appreciate such a blessing. If it were even 
offered to others, they would be apt to reject it as 
worthless or unnecessary. They would behold 
nothing in their condition calling for such a thing. 
And next — as to the necessity of faith in Christy 
in order to receiving forgiveness, it may be remarked, 
that as it is only through Christ's atonement that 
pardon can come to guilty men, it does not seem 
reasonable to suppose that they can derive such a 
benefit from that atonement who reject it ; and they 
reject the atonement, cast it away from them, who 
do not receive, or, in other words, believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ. That, according to the scrip- 
tures, faith is a necessary antecedent to forgiveness, 
appears from such passages as these : " To him 
gave all the prophets witness that through his 
(Christ's) name, whosoever believeth in him shall 
receive remission of sins." (Acts, x. 43.) u Be it 
known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that 
through this man is preached unto you the forgive- 
ness of sins. And by him all that believe are justi- 
fied from all things from which ye could not be 
justified by the law of Moses." (Acts, xiii. 38, 39.) 
" That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and 
inheritance among them which are sanctified by 
faith that is in me." (Acts, xxvi. 18.) "He that 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 271 

believeth not shall be damned." (Mark, xvi. 16.) 
Naught save Christ's blood can wash away sin ; 
but that blood cannot with reason be expected to 
affect so materially what it reaches not. Now it 
reaches not the soul of the unbeliever ; for faith 
only is the appointed channel of conveyance to the 
souls of men of the blood of Christ. The apostle 
Peter speaks of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. 
Now it is faith which may be said to sprinkle that 
blood on the door-posts and lintel of men's souls. 
Faith, as it were, puts its hand into Christ's wounds, 
and takes of the blood and sprinkles it upon the con- 
science, to the washing away of guilt. A connexion 
must subsist between Christ and the soul, in order 
to the blood of the Lamb efficaciously flowing to it. 
Faith forms that connexion. There must be a union 
between the one and the other. Faith is that bond 
of union. God would have all on whom he bestows 
forgiveness, feel their indebtedness to Christ for open- 
ing the fountain of pardon to them, and express their 
gratitude also to him for it ; and he will have them 
express their feeling of indebtedness and gratitude 
by directing their eye toward, and coming to him — 
and this is by faith. The gospel offers the boon of 
pardon : faith is the hand appointed to receive it. 
Thus, my friend, we see in what sense faith is 
necessary to forgiveness. It is necessary instru- 
mentally. 

There is in the gospel no limit set to forgiveness, 



272 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

other than that now stated. Let a sinner but repent 
and believe, and no matter how great his sins may- 
be, he can find pardon. Though they be of astonish- 
ing magnitude — though they be as scarlet or as 
crimson in their hue, the sacrifice offered by our 
Great High Priest is sufficient to atone for them ; 
"the blood of the Lamb" is of sufficient efficacy to 
wash their guilt all away. Reader, are you a great 
sinner? Do you appear to yourself such, at this 
hour? Are you amazed at the number and mag- 
nitude of your sins 1 Do they appear to you, at 
any time, too many, or too heinous to be forgiven ? 
Know thou that the greatest sins come within the 
compass of forgiveness. Manasseh, that once wicked, 
cruel Hebrew king, who seduced the nation into 
idolatry, and made the land reek with blood ; Saul 
of Tarsus, that once fierce persecutor of Christ's 
followers, that " chief of sinners," as he afterwards 
called himself; and the dying thief — these men 
found forgiveness. Ah, there are many, many now 
shining ones in glory, who were once very great 
sinners ; who were guilty of deeds among the most 
dark in the catalogue of crimes : yet God granted 
them pardoning mercy. Some of the Jews who 
participated in the deed of crucifying our Lord, are 
now circling the throne rejoicing. They found 
forgiveness through that blood they helped to spill. 
Oh, there are no sins that will fail to be washed 
away through any want of virtue or efficacy in the 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 273 

blood of the Crucified One. Let there be but repent- 
ance and faith, and the very chief of sinners need 
not despair of finding pardon. 

It may be also remarked, that when the Lord 
grants forgiveness to sinners upon their repenting 
and believing, the forgiveness granted extends to all 
their sins — all the sins they have ever fallen into. 
He does not forgive some of their sins, and leave 
the rest unpardoned. No, no. God does not thus 
do his work by halves. It would be to little purpose 
to have some sins remitted, and to have the guilt of 
the rest remaining uncancelled. Jehovah, by the 
prophet Jeremiah, said of Judah and Israel, " I will 
pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned, 
and whereby they have transgressed against me." 
David, in the 103d Psalm, says of the Lord, " Who 
forgiveth all thine iniquities." Paul, writing to the 
Colossian christians, says, tt Having forgiven you all 
trespasses. 1 ' God blots out all one's past transgres- 
sions, when he blots out any. I say, past trans- 
gressions: for sins future cannot be actually pardoned 
until they are committed ; nor will they be forgiven 
till they are also repented of. Indeed, if pardon 
extended to sins yet having no existence, as well as 
to sins past, there would be no need for christians 
to pray for forgiveness. It is vain or useless to 
pray for the pardon of that which is already for- 
given. Besides, Christ is an advocate to intercede 
for his people in reference to their daily sins ; but 



274 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

what need of daily intercession, if daily sins are 
previously, even before committed, all forgiven ? 
God has, it is true, determined to pardon all the 
sins which his people shall ever fall into ; and the 
forgiving of past sins is a sure token of such deter- 
mination, and a sort of earnest of what he will do 
for them as to their future sins, upon their repenting 
of them and looking to Jesus ; and that is all that is 
needful, or can in reason be looked for. 

It is our purpose to devote the remainder of this 
chapter to a consideration of the privileges of a par- 
doned condition. It may thus be shown, according 
to what is affirmed by the Psalmist, iri the words to 
which we alluded near the commencement of the 
chapter, that he is " blessed" truly, " whose trangres- 
sion is forgiven, whose sin is covered ;" or, as it is 
in the original, and might be translated, " Blessed- 
nesses to him whose transgression is forgiven, whose 
sin is covered. Blessednesses are to the man unto 
whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity." Quite a 
number of great and choice privileges and blessings, 
each yielding a blessedness its own, are to such an 
one. 

One of the privileges of a pardoned condition is, 
deliverance from the curse which man as a sinner 
lies under ; an exemption from exposure to suffer 
the penalty of God's violated law ; a release from 
condemnation. The various scriptural expressions 
which were mentioned and explained a while ago. 



FOR THE DirENITENT. 275 

such as a covering of sin by the Lord ; a not im- 
puting of it ; a non-remembrance of it ; a blotting 
out, and a taking arcay of one's iniquities ; and a 
casting of them into the depths of the sea, all import 
that the soul for which such things are done, is no 
longer exposed to endless suffering for past sins. 
The curse is lifted off from all who have obtained 
pardon. Jehovah's law has no thunders for them 
on account of anything they have done, or omitted 
to do, how evil, criminal soever their conduct may 
have been. The Lord looks upon a pardoned 
creature as if he had never sinned. As the cancel- 
ling of a bond nulls it, makes it as if it had never 
been ; so the forgiving of sin is as a making of it 
not to be, so far as penal consequences are concerned. 
Thus, we read in the book of Jeremiah, " In those 
days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity 
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be 
none ; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be 
found: for I will pardon them." Now here is a 
mighty burden rolled off; a great and unspeakably 
blessed deliverance granted. Think what the un- 
pardoned sinner is exposed to. Think of the horrors 
and torments of the second death. Oh, think what 
God has threatened the wicked with in the world 
to come. And think, too, that the wicked, unpar- 
doned creature is condemned already, and is only 
afforded a brief respite here ; that he shall soon be 
as miserable as he deserves ; dying unpardoned, oh, 



276 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

how miserable, and that, too, world without end. 
Upon the grave-stone of every one who departs this 
life unforgiven, may be written the epitaph, <c It 
had been good for this man that he had never been 
born." Oh, what inexpressible misery, even as to 
degree, will such an one feel ; and, then, that word 
eternity, eternity is written indelibly on all his pains 
and woes. In reference to such wretchedness, he 
whose sins are forgiven is in the position of a crea- 
ture that has never sinned. A condition, oh, how 
privileged ! 

Again : He whose sins are forgiven, has peace — 
peace with God, and peace within. Not only is 
God reconciled to him, but he is also reconciled to 
God. He is willing that the Lord should not only 
rule in heaven, but likewise on earth. He is no 
longer disposed to quarrel either with God's precep- 
tive, or his providential will. His laws he is no 
longer inclined to charge with being too extensive 
or severe in their exactions. He is no longer dis- 
posed to call in question the wisdom or rectitude of 
the Divine Lawgiver, in imposing such rules of 
conduct on his human creatures, or annexing such 
a penalty to their violation. He is reconciled to 
God's providence, as well as to his laws. He likes 
the idea that the Lord has established his throne 
in the heavens, and that his kingdom ruleth over 
all. He believes that the great vessel of the uni- 
verse will not go wrong under his management. 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 277 

He can encounter winds and waves with such a 
guide and overseer, without having his heart greatly- 
agitated, his equanimity disturbed. 

He who has received forgiveness from God has 
peace within. The conscience of the pardoned 
sinner is not generally left long without the infor- 
mation of the forgiveness which the Lord has 
granted. God will not usually suffer that faculty 
to be long condemning one whom He no longer 
condemns ; whom his law holds no longer under 
its condemning power. Hence pardoned sinners 
are commonly found enjoying a greater or less 
measure of inward peace. An unpardoned sinner 
has a state of conscience far from peaceful. It may- 
be almost asleep sometimes ; but that is a different 
state from one of peace. And then God may awake 
that power at any time, and cause it to roar and 
thunder terribly. Oh, the horrors of a guilty and 
accusing conscience ! What misery, what misery 
can it kindle in the soul ! But where sin is remit- 
ted, the conscience has no longer authority to accuse. 
Where God absolves, the conscience, if rightly in- 
formed, absolves. If the Lord says, " Thy sins are 
forgiven thee," conscience says, " Go in peace." 
Said one, writing to a youth who was a stranger 
to itj " The peace of being forgiven reminds me of 
the calm, blue sky, which no earthly clamours can 
disturb. It lightens all labour, sweetens every 
24 



278 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

morsel of bread, and makes a sick bed all soft and 
downy." 

Again : Where God pardons, he bestows a 
righteousness — he imputes the righteousness of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Where he exempts from death^ 
he gives a title to life. Pardon is an important 
branch of justification. Acceptance as righteous is 
the other branch. These branches are never sepa- 
rated in God's proceedings. Where the former is 
granted by him, the latter is not withheld. Now 
what a privilege it is to be reckoned and dealt w T ith 
as a righteous creature ; to have a title to life the 
same as if one had always personally and perfectly 
obeyed the divine law. 

We may remark, in the next place, that they 
who are pardoned are secure of sanctifying grace : 
for we have just said that they who are forgiven are 
also accepted as righteous, and so have a title to life. 
But they who have a title to life, God will by his 
grace and Spirit make meet for the enjoyment of 
it. In the 8th chapter of the Romans it is said, 
" Whom he justified, them he also glorified," i. e., 
raised to glory. Nothing is there said, directly, 
about sanctification. But then, it is implied ; for 
the Lord exalts none to glory whom he does not 
make holy, or to whom he does not impart a meet- 
ness for it. " Without holiness no man shall see 
the Lord." Without holiness, no one would be 
prepared to relish or enjoy heaven. Now what a 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 279 

privilege it is to have a holy heart ; pure, holy 
principles, affections, dispositions. What happiness 
is the result of their existence and operation. They 
create a young dawn of heaven below. Faith, hope, 
love, are some of the principles which belong to the 
new man ; and how much happiness these yield to 
the possessor, this side of the tomb, it would not be 
an easy thing to tell. Yes ; God will impart gra- 
cious, holy principles to those whom he pardons. 
Sin enslaves its subjects. It is a great curse to have 
the desires, dispositions, feelings, of the unpardoned, 
and unsanctified, and be under the control of them. 
The drudges of Satan are such as are under their 
unbroken dominion. From the sway of these, 
pardoned souls are more and more delivered. Yes; 
forgiveness has connected with, and invariably draws 
after it, the grace which sanctifies — draws after it the 
influence w T hich adorns the soul with holiness. 

Again : They who have received pardon are 
blessed, because to them are exceedingly great and 
precious promises given. For example, among 
other things, they are promised God's protecting, 
guardian care. Listen : ,c The Lord is thy keeper; 
the Lord is thy shade on thy right hand. The sun 
shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. 
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil ; he shali 
preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy 
going out, and thy coming in, from this time forth, 
and for evermore." Everything has a commission 



280 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

to do the pardoned creature good. Do afflictions 
come? Does loss, poverty, sickness, reproach, per- 
secution, or sore bereavement come? These come 
not by chance. They are the Lord's kind mes- 
sengers, wearing an unpromising exterior indeed, 
but nevertheless kind messengers, sent by God to 
convey to him good, inestimable good. If he be 
chastised, he is chastised for his good, not in wrath. 
Nothing comes to him in the way of punishment, 
strictly speaking ; nothing in the form of penal evil. 
He has the favour of God, and that favour is mani- 
fested in all the divine dispensations toward him. 

Even death, which is a terrible thing to the un- 
pardoned, is an unspeakable blessing to him whose 
sins are forgiven. Death is to such an one not " the 
king of terrors ;" has to such an one no sting. In 
the near prospect of it, instead of shaking in every 
joint and limb through fear, he can feel tranquil, or, 
beyond this, with joy unspeakable rejoice. As a 
proof and illustration of what I have just said, let 
me throw before you a few words of the dying 
Payson : " The celestial city is full in my view. 
Its glories beam upon me ; its odours are wafted to 
me ; its sounds strike upon my ears ; and its spirit 
is breathed into my heart. Nothing separates me 
from it but the river of death, which now appears 
but as an insignificant rill, that may be crossed at 
a single step, whenever God shall give permission. 
The Sun of Righteousness has been gradually draw- 



FOR THE IMFENITENT. 281 

ing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and brighter 
as he approached, and now he fills the whole hemi- 
sphere : pouring forth a flood of glory in which I 
seem to float like an insect in the beams of the sun; 
exulting, yet almost trembling, while I gaze on this 
excessive brightness, and wondering with unutter- 
able wonder, why God should deign thus to shine 
upon a sinful worm. A single heart and a single 
tongue seem altogether inadequate to my wants. I 
want a whole heart for every separate emotion, and 
a whole tongue to express that emotion." 

As one said to Philip Jenks, just before he ex- 
pired, "How hard it is to die!" he replied, "Oh 3 
no : easy dying ; blessed dying ; glorious dying !" 
Looking up at the clock, he said, "I have experi- 
enced more happiness in dying two hours this day, 
than in my whole life. It is worth living for, it 
is worth a whole life, to have such an end as this." 
When the English martyr, Bainham, was led to 
the stake, he found that the comfortable sense of 
pardon and salvation, through the all-sufficiency of 
Christ, triumphed even over pain in its most ago- 
nizing form ; and declared that the blazing faggots 
seemed to him as a bed of roses. 

Well -may the pardoned soul, dear reader, rejoice 
at death's approach, for it comes to him as a friend. 
It comes to knock off his chains, open the doors of 
his fleshly prison-house, and let the inmate go free 
—go to another and a better dwelling-place. 
24* 



282 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS 

The pardoned soul, in short, goes to God, to dwell 
in his presence while eternal ages roll. And I will 
not tell you, no, nor attempt it, for it would be a 
failure if I did, how blessed or happy he shall be 
there. If you and I shall ever be permitted to plant 
our feet on glory's flowery brow, and hand in hand 
go up the enchanting way toward its gorgeous 
capital, I shall be better able to tell you then. But 
I will not promise that I shall be able to find lan- 
guage, even then, to express it to you. No descrip- 
tion of mine, however, will be needed by you, if 
you shall be brought to feel the blessedness for 
yourself. Abraham, David, Peter, Paul, could ye 
tell this reader what happiness ye are now enjoying? 
what draughts of bliss ye are now drinking in? 
Oh, language how weak ; even the tongues of an- 
gels how inadequate to express what those par- 
doned souls are now seeing and feeling ! Yes — 
and still new scenes of sublimity and beauty will 
burst upon their vision ; and larger, deeper 
draughts of bliss will they drink in ; and from 
glory still to glory will it be their exalted privilege 
to rise, each successive moment in the eternity be- 
fore them. 

Oh, are not they truly, eminently blessed, whose 
transgressions are forgiven ; whose sins are covered? 
What a precious series of blessings is that, of which 
forgiveness stands at the head, If you, my reader, 
have never yet received pardon, is it not the earnest 



FOR THE IMPENITENT. 283 

desire of your heart to obtain it? Do I not hear 
you say, " Yes, it is ; but can the Lord be willing 
to grant pardon, and those other great blessings to 
such a sinner as myself?" After what has been 
already said, dear friend, can you doubt it ? Not 
willing ? Wherefore was his infinitely dear Son 
mantled in human flesh, and nailed to the accursed 
tree? Not willing? What mean those various 
pressing invitations of the gospel? What is the 
import of those words in a parable spoken by our 
Lord. '-But when he was yet a great way off, his 
father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and 

fell on his neck, and kissed him ;" and " said to 

his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it 
on him ; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on 
his feet ; and bring hither the fatted calf and kill 
it ; and let us eat and be merry : for this my son 
was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is 
found I" 

Approach that God against whom you have so 
much sinned, in the appointed way ; humbly, peni- 
tently, and with your hand resting on the head of 
the sin-atoning Lamb ; and he will cast a look of 
inexpressible clemency and tenderness upon you; 
will at once grant you that invaluable blessing on 
which we have been offering some thoughts in this 
chapter: that first in the precious series, forgiveness 
—and in his good time, and after his established 



284 THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS, ETC. 

method, those other blessings which belong to his 
salvation. 

My reader, other duties call ; I must leave you. 
Give me your hand. May Israel's God abundantly 
bless you. Follow the counsel which has been 
given you in this book, and we shall soon meet 
again — meet in that beautiful and happy land 
which lies on the other side of Jordan's waters. 
Hasting, like myself, to the tomb, and to the terri- 
tory of spirits beyond it, oh, let not my eyes fail 
to behold thee among the shining ones where starry 
crowns are worn, and Jehovah is worshipped in 
perfection.. 



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